Overhead drilling is one of the most strenuous tasks in the building trades, and there have been several attempts to lessen the strain on workers responsible for drilling hundreds of holes overhead in concrete. Not content with bringing out a mechanical exoskeleton earlier this year and stopping there, tool manufacturer Hilti is now launching a semi-autonomous overhead drilling robot.

The robot, called Jaibot, features a robotic arm mounted to a tracked base unit. While the unit is driven around the site by a nearby operator with a control unit, the robot will orient itself at the drill site and drill autonomously once paired with an included Hilti PLT 300 robotic total station.