Some researchers create ` ` swarm ' '' construction crew . Small , simple robots work together to build structures . `` Not the ones around here that destroy buildings , but the ones on other continents that build ... mounds more than 40 feet tall , '' said Justin Werfel , a staff scientist at Harvard 's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering . The TERMES project is based on mound - building robots . Creators say the robots could do dangerous things like build dams in floods .
Some researchers create ` ` swarm ' '' construction crew . Small , simple robots work together to build structures . The TERMES project is based on mound - building robots . Creators say the robots could do dangerous things like build dams in floods .