Robotic cranes to help build and run Google’s new headquarters

Google is to construct and operate its new Silicon Valley headquarters with the aid of a robotic crane known as a “crabot”. 

The main job of the crabot will be to rearrange the four heavy canopies that will cover the Googleplex after it is built. The interior of the building is designed to be movable so that it can be reconfigured and change shape.

According to a report in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the crabot was described by Google in its development application as “a range of small flexible manageable cranes and robotic machines” that can “operate from within the canopies and the human scale floorplates to lift prefabricated units during construction, elements of furniture and services”.

The objective of the robot “is to create a solution that can be assembled efficiently and economically within pre-erected canopy structures by means of small, easily manoeuvrable cranes”. 

A crabot will have a maximum lifting weight of 10 tonnes. 

The 316,000 square metre building was designed by Thomas Heatherwick’s UK studio and Denmark’s Bjarke Ingels Group.   

It will bring 20,000 Google’s staff under one roof, and will be the first time the company has built a complex from scratch.

Google have recently filed a patent for “digital wallpaper“. 

Images via Google