Drones that could repair buildings of future

The researchers say future soft, flexible drones will be able to reach areas dangerous for humans such as tunnels, mines or pipelines.

LONDON/DUBENDORF (Reuters) - Experts in Britain and Switzerland are building drones which they say will one day autonomously fly around buildings, assessing them and even conduct repairs free of human interference.

The drones will be able to  see  using computer vision technology, building 3D maps of their surroundings. Once they spot where a repair is required, they could even summon other drones to fix it.

The researchers say future soft, flexible drones will be able to reach areas dangerous for humans such as tunnels, mines or pipelines.

The project is part of a partnership between Imperial College London and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa.

Empa s Next Evolution in Sustainable Building Technologies (NEST) Aerial Robotics Hub and Imperial s Aerial Robotics Lab are being used as hubs for the drones  development.

Director of the lab and head of the Empa s Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics, Dr. Mirko Kovac, told Reuters he envisages the drones would be like a building s immune system, monitoring and repairing it.

But he also looks to nature, saying creepy crawly insects can provide good examples to follow.

"We can really just take inspiration of...how spiders approach manufacturing tasks and this is really what we translated," he said.

A demonstration at the Aerial Robotics Lab in London showed one of the development drones using a magnet to latch onto a metal walkway before descending to hang from a wire.

By moving up and down the wire, the hope is the drone can assess a wall while saving energy.

Dr. Kovac sees his project as cost-saving in the long run, reducing the need for helicopters for building assessments and scaffolding for repairs.

The materials scientists and robotics experts envision drones being buildings  permanent residents as a key component of future cities.