Robots Assemble Large Structures from Little Pieces

Today's commercial aircraft are typically manufactured in sections and often in different locations — wings at one factory, fuselage sections at another, tail components somewhere else — and then flown to a central plant in huge cargo planes for final assembly. If the entire plane could be built out of a large array of tiny identical pieces, all put together by an army of tiny robots, costs in manpower and transportation could be slashed.