Researchers taught an autonomous excavator to construct dry stone walls itself using boulders weighing several tons and demolition debris. Until today, dry stone wall construction has involved vast ...

ETH Zurich researchers deployed an autonomous excavator, called HEAP, to build a six metre-high and sixty-five-metre-long dry-stone wall. The wall is embedded in a digitally planned and autonomously ...

A dry stone wall is made of nothing but stones, carefully fitted together in such a way that the wall won’t fall down. Gluing the stones with mortar—a paste made of lime or cement mixed with sand and ...

Traditional dry stone wall construction typically involves extensive manual labor, but this innovative approach leverages the capabilities of the autonomous excavator named HEAP. The research team, ...

Some find solace in the physical feel of stone. Some claim it speaks to them. The permanence of stone is legendary: A sword cannot be drawn from it; a mythical Greek monarch defines futility by ...