The Boeing 777 is a huge, hulking beast. When you’re trying to churn out 100 of them every year, there’s only one way to pull it off: turn to the robots. These giant, spray-painting robot arms can coat one of the bird’s mammoth wings in mere minutes.
Compared to old-fashioned manpower, the enormous pair of robotic arms not only works faster and more precisely, but can complete the entire job without ever actually moving the wing. Not having to move the huge sheet of metal from station to station to station during the process cuts out a lot of the hassel that used to be involved.
Now if only someone could come up with some handy robots that can keep Dreamliner batteries from melting down. [Boeing via IEEE Spectrum]