Built Robotics and Penn Engineering’s xLAB Partner to Advance Physical AI in Construction
Built Robotics, the leader in physical AI for construction, and xLAB, the Safe Autonomous Systems Lab, headed by Rahul Mangharam, Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering and principal investigator of xLAB at Penn Engineering, today announce a research collaboration to advance physical AI models for the construction industry.
Safety is at the heart of the collaboration, leveraging xLAB’s years of experience developing high-performance, safety-critical autonomous systems and Built Robotics’ proprietary edge AI model for personnel detection and human safety.
“xLAB is committed to building safety-critical autonomous systems for real-world deployment, and construction represents one of the most demanding frontiers for that work,” said Mangharam. “The fundamental challenge is bridging the gap between validation in controlled environments and robust performance under operational conditions. Our collaboration with Built will give us access to active jobsites with high-fidelity mapping data and real-world operational parameters, enabling us to build practical autonomous systems solving a real-world need.”
“What xLAB has built in safety architecture is precisely the kind of rigorous foundation that physical AI demands,” said Noah Ready-Campbell, CEO of Built Robotics. “Our proprietary edge AI model for personnel detection has been refined across some of the most demanding operational environments in the industry — active construction sites with hundreds of employees stretching over thousands of acres.”
Liam Osler, Engineering Director for AI at Built Robotics commented, “We are driven by the same core conviction as xLAB: that physical AI must first be safe, and that it is poised to set a new standard for safety in construction.”
The initial phase of the research pilot will focus on deploying Built Robotics’ edge AI model across a fleet of construction survey robots tasked with collecting high-fidelity sensor data on active solar projects. This data will then be used to improve Built’s own AI models, and to expand the models to other vehicle platforms and construction activities.
“With one of the most respected robotics programs in the world, Penn Engineering — my alma mater — was a natural starting point for this collaboration,” said Ready-Campbell. “Dean Vijay Kumar’s pioneering work on quadcopters and multi-robot coordination at the GRASP Lab was formative for me when I started Built. And as our fleet of robots has scaled in the field, the mission alignment with xLAB has become crystal clear. I couldn’t be more excited to partner with Professor Mangharam to set a new bar for how physical AI is designed, validated, and deployed in the field.”
