AI drones are controlling self-driving diggers on building sites

By Niall Firth

THERE’S a revolution under way at building sites across Japan. Drones soar in the skies while scanning the ground. In the dirt below, huge diggers are working semi-autonomously, levelling land and digging ditches.

Californian firm Skycatch has supplied its quadcopter drones to more than 5000 building sites in Japan over the past three years. The sites are mostly in and around the Tokyo area and are run by Komatsu, the world’s second-largest building firm, as part of its Smart Construction project.

Now Skycatch is adding artificial intelligence to the mix, automating the process further and taking …