Built Robotics' retrofitted machinery is autonomously pile driving up to 1,000 steel beams a day at a Louisiana solar power site, CEO Noah Ready-Campbell said.
Courtesy Built Robotics
In a swampy stretch of northeastern Louisiana, large robots have taken over some of the grueling, repetitive work at a solar construction site spanning more than a mile.The 72-ton machines are retrofitted with software and hardware from Built Robotics and can work upward of 12 hours a day, picking up and driving 200-pound steel beams into the ground.Noah Ready-Campbell, the company's cofounder and CEO, told Business Insider they are laying the foundation for the solar power infrastructure tied to Meta's massive Hyperion AI data center in Richland Parish."The pressure is on to build out the grid at a pace we've never seen before," Ready-Campbell said.The Louisiana project is a glimpse of the future of construction unfolding in the present, with fewer workers handling dangerous, repetitive tasks by hand, and more autonomous machines taking them on to quickly build out new infrastructure.Founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, Built Robotics develops what Ready-Campbell called a "physical AI upgrade" for heavy equipment. The startup installs a mix of sensors, cameras, GPS, and software on machines from major manufacturers, including Caterpillar, enabling them to operate autonomously within defined work zones.Built has completed over 40 deployments, primarily in utility-scale solar and data centers. The modified machinery can handle tasks such as pile driving, trenching, and pre-drilling — monotonous work that can come before installing solar panels or paving roads.
