NREC Building Its Largest Robot

Massive machine will use automated system to protect Mighty Mississippi with concrete mats. A yellow, steel structure constructed this fall in front of Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) will become the largest robot ever constructed in the 22-year history of the organization. Its 45-foot-tall gantry, visible from Pittsburgh's 40th Street Bridge, was built as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prototyping project to automate its annual mat-sinking operations on the Mississippi River. The massive mats, which consist of concrete blocks wired together, shield riverbanks from erosion, helping to protect levees and ensure safe river navigation. As big as it is, the prototype robot being built on NREC's front lawn will serve only to test and further develop systems that will become part of the final, much larger robot - a floating factory called ARMOR1 - that eventually will be deployed on barges on the Mississippi. The NREC gantry supports a 55-foot-long, 24-ton arm that is about 20 feet above the ground. A carriage suspended from the arm will have two hoists for picking up, transporting and positioning concrete blocks so they can be tied together with wire to create the mats.