Walkable rope bridges and shapeshifting sun shelters are just a couple of manmade objects to lean on these flying robots recently, and now there's an enterprising team of researchers hoping to use them to craft low-cost housing made from natural materials.

The work is headed up by Stephanie Chaltiel, a researcher at Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. Chaltiel has spent years researching how elements of certain building methods could be automated to open up new possibilities, in particular through the use of drones.