Via IEEE Spectrum:
Robots are fairly decent at using prefabricated materials to build things, but when you get out into an unstructured environment (whether it’s somewhere like a forest or a city after a major disaster), it doesn't really make sense to bring anything prefabricated, because you have no idea what you’re going to need. What makes more sense is to bring along building materials that can be adapted into whatever you want on-site, which means large amounts of stuff that you can then build up into exactly what you need.
Researchers from Harvard University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute have taken inspiration from animals like weaver birds, termites, and beavers, and developed robots capable of using cheap materials to build large structures.
