- "Robot-Installed Solar Panels Cut Costs by 50%" (2012) https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotinstalled-solar-panels-cut-costs-by-50 https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotin

- "Robot-Installed Solar Panels Cut Costs by 50%" (2012) https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotinstalled-solar-panels-cut-costs-by-50 https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotinstalled-solar-panels-cut-co... : > Here's the executive summary, since I've never done an executive summary before and it sounds fancy: using robots to set up a 14 megawatt solar power plant can potentially cuts costs from $2,000,000 to $900,000, while being constructed in eight times faster with only three human workers instead of 35. > So there you go! If you're still reading, we can tell you a little bit about the robot that performs this incredible feat of engineering efficiency: it costs just under a million bucks, but it's built from off-the-shelf parts and in continuous use will supposedly pay for itself in either no time at all or less than a year, whichever comes last. > [...] The robot itself has a mobile base that runs on tank treads, and a robot arm grips huge 145 watt panels one at a time and autonomously positions them in just the right spot on a pre-installed metal frame. Humans follow along behind, adding fasteners and making electrical connections, - "Launch HN: Charge Robotics (YC S21) - Robots that build solar farms" (2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30780455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30780455 : > We're using a two-part robotic system to build this racking structure. First, a portable robotic factory placed on-site assembles sections of racking hardware and solar modules. This factory fits inside a shipping container. Robotic arms pick up solar modules from a stack and fasten them to a long metal tube (the "torque tube"). Second, autonomous delivery vehicles distribute these assembled sections into the field and fasten them in place onto target destination piles.