“US power tool manufacturer DEWALT has introduced a downward-drilling robot designed to automate one of the most labor-intensive steps in data center construction.
During its real-world deployment on active construction sites, the autonomous drilling robot demonstrated performance that would be difficult to match with conventional crews. It operated at speeds of up to ten times faster than traditional methods, delivering consistent, high-precision results at scale.
Across ten data center projects, the system helped cut a combined 80 weeks from construction schedules, while sharply reducing the cost per drilled hole. In total, it completed more than 90,000 holes with 99.97 percent accuracy in both placement and depth.”
shifty_coder on
If anybody else is still befuddled by the headline and article: the robot is drilling the anchor points in the concrete floor for the hundreds of server racks planned for data center.
Arthurdubya on
Well, I’m glad AI has come for the manual labor jobs.
Finally, blue collar and white collar alike can wade in the pool of hatred for AI.
Simpicity on
Oh yeah, boys. We’re gonna hit some crude data any day now. Bit gold. Santa Clara tea.
Omephla on
So they’re not mining Bitcoin when drilling? And when AI scrapes data off the web, it’s with a spatula then? Damn it, just flip the flapjacks Rosie!
triggeron on
I have drilled holes like this and can confirm it is extremely easy to screw up and is very time consuming to do correctly.
ggouge on
We don’t even need the data centers. They keep making them even though AI does not make any money in hopes that one day when it does make money they are already set up.
Falconman21 on
Don’t look at this as some AI advancement type thing. This is simply someone realizing that a robot would work really well in a large, flat, mostly unobstructed area doing a simple repetitive task, and that there are a lot more data center projects than usual right now, so the demand is there.
It’s a roomba with a drill, and there isn’t any furniture to get stuck on or stairs to deal with. It’s a clever device, but nothing new or extraordinary. Automated farm and earth moving equipment that have been around for years are more complicated than this.
ForeverYoung_Feb29 on
Glad we’ve got municipalities looking at 100% tax abatements for 15 years so we can get like 12 jobs out of a couple hundred acres of noise, heat, water use and electrical problems. It was going to be 14 jobs, but now that you don’t need to drill holes, those are gone too.
adamislaam on
So they’ve managed to make AI robots to make AI data centres…. This will end well haha
SaltyShawarma on
I saw this star Trek. They will become self cognizant and then self replication and we will have to acknowledge them as sentient.
rectal_warrior on
It’s cut 80 weeks from 10 jobs, I’m calling bs on this, there is no way drilling the floor for cabinets is an 8 week job per site. That’s ridiculous.
LetMePushTheButton on
I was just watching Mike Rowe on a fox news panel talk about how hard intensive work that a robot cant do would be safe from this kind of robotic work. Claimed that construction would be”totally safe” from automation.
LOL.
Darnocpdx on
How much rebar did it drill through? Can’t wait to see how the floor looks in a couple years as the building settles.
Build notes typically say not to damage rebar, can’t think of too many jobs I’ve worked on that didn’t require RFIs for this exact situation.
sirscooter on
So we are creating robots that can build data centers. I see no problems that might bite us in the ass
15 Comments
“US power tool manufacturer DEWALT has introduced a downward-drilling robot designed to automate one of the most labor-intensive steps in data center construction.
During its real-world deployment on active construction sites, the autonomous drilling robot demonstrated performance that would be difficult to match with conventional crews. It operated at speeds of up to ten times faster than traditional methods, delivering consistent, high-precision results at scale.
Across ten data center projects, the system helped cut a combined 80 weeks from construction schedules, while sharply reducing the cost per drilled hole. In total, it completed more than 90,000 holes with 99.97 percent accuracy in both placement and depth.”
If anybody else is still befuddled by the headline and article: the robot is drilling the anchor points in the concrete floor for the hundreds of server racks planned for data center.
Well, I’m glad AI has come for the manual labor jobs.
Finally, blue collar and white collar alike can wade in the pool of hatred for AI.
Oh yeah, boys. We’re gonna hit some crude data any day now. Bit gold. Santa Clara tea.
So they’re not mining Bitcoin when drilling? And when AI scrapes data off the web, it’s with a spatula then? Damn it, just flip the flapjacks Rosie!
I have drilled holes like this and can confirm it is extremely easy to screw up and is very time consuming to do correctly.
We don’t even need the data centers. They keep making them even though AI does not make any money in hopes that one day when it does make money they are already set up.
Don’t look at this as some AI advancement type thing. This is simply someone realizing that a robot would work really well in a large, flat, mostly unobstructed area doing a simple repetitive task, and that there are a lot more data center projects than usual right now, so the demand is there.
It’s a roomba with a drill, and there isn’t any furniture to get stuck on or stairs to deal with. It’s a clever device, but nothing new or extraordinary. Automated farm and earth moving equipment that have been around for years are more complicated than this.
Glad we’ve got municipalities looking at 100% tax abatements for 15 years so we can get like 12 jobs out of a couple hundred acres of noise, heat, water use and electrical problems. It was going to be 14 jobs, but now that you don’t need to drill holes, those are gone too.
So they’ve managed to make AI robots to make AI data centres…. This will end well haha
I saw this star Trek. They will become self cognizant and then self replication and we will have to acknowledge them as sentient.
It’s cut 80 weeks from 10 jobs, I’m calling bs on this, there is no way drilling the floor for cabinets is an 8 week job per site. That’s ridiculous.
I was just watching Mike Rowe on a fox news panel talk about how hard intensive work that a robot cant do would be safe from this kind of robotic work. Claimed that construction would be”totally safe” from automation.
LOL.
How much rebar did it drill through? Can’t wait to see how the floor looks in a couple years as the building settles.
Build notes typically say not to damage rebar, can’t think of too many jobs I’ve worked on that didn’t require RFIs for this exact situation.
So we are creating robots that can build data centers. I see no problems that might bite us in the ass