Hasta La Gadget!

A new robot concept is raising the hopes of the building industry that the high-tech future will be populated with smart excavating robots that will easily replace the high-cost of insurance-needing human contractors.

If the Eddy machine comes to pass, it also appears that gravediggers soon will be looking for a job.

The Eddy is a useful robot in the same tradition as the iRobots used by the U.S. Army. It is remote-controlled and can serve as a physical extension of its operator. It’s supposed to suck up dirt, debris, and other nasty stuff in the endless, joyless fashion of super tough engineering materials.

According to the designers, the key to the design is the wide pipe embedded within the center of the robot. Because it is flexible (exact materials aren’t specified) the robot can extend its reach mid-dig at larger angles than regular big digs, has greater flexibility, and also better maneuverability and speed than current digging operators.

Probably the best part of the design, however, is that it fits in a modular outlook to excavation, with a dash of robot individualism. Smaller Eddys can be used throughout a construction site and when they need more power, they can jack up to a large Big Daddy suck-up machine. This means you can continue using some Eddys strategically while using one for the dig that needs the most power.

This will also be useful in case you find a dead body on the front porch and don’t want to get your hands dirty.