World-first robot taking infrastructure development to new heights

Crest Robotics, a leader in advanced robotics, and Earthbuilt Technology, a pioneer in sustainable building solutions, recently unveiled “Charlotte”, a world-first robot designed to advance lunar exploration and provide low-cost, low-carbon housing capabilities on earth.

Launched at the 2025 International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Charlotte combines advanced robotics with high-tech raw materials, helping to solve urgent housing challenges on earth while also marking a leap forward in building shelters on the moon – critical for further lunar exploration and deep space research.

Charlotte, when combined with the Earthbuilt extrusion and compaction capabilities, will be a fully autonomous, sustainable building solution that can assemble a standard 200 square-metre Australian home in a day with zero carbon output.

It does it by using natural and readily available materials from the site, in a single process, from raw materials to final deployment in a building. The process cuts all the costs and carbon-intensive steps in the supply chain to deliver zero-carbon homes at a fraction of the cost, achieving construction speeds estimated at 1500 to 5000 times faster than today’s methods.

Dr Clyde Webster, Founding Director of Crest Robotics, explained why Charlotte’s spider-like form is ideal for building on earth and on the lunar surface.

“Crest Robotics was founded to improve safety, productivity, and cost-effectiveness of the blue-collar workforce, addressing critical labour and productivity crises in sectors including construction and energy,” he said.

“These principles underpin Charlotte, which is designed to take the heavy lifting out of building construction, both here and on the Moon, where the technology is being considered for its high sustainability and suitability for the lunar environment.

“Building a lunar base is no small feat, and it will require different technologies than what we currently use on earth. Aside from the impracticality of sending heavy hydraulic machinery to the moon, the conditions on the moon do not readily facilitate maintenance or robust operations for this type of equipment.

“Charlotte is a modern approach to machine development, embodying the new ‘dynamics’ approach to robotic design, yielding machines that are more autonomous, versatile, and efficient, making them perfect for space exploration and fast construction."

Jan Golembiewski, Founder and CEO of Earthbuilt Technology, said the system works by collecting raw materials such as sand, earth and even waste materials like crushed brick or glass, which is then bound in fabric and compressed to form the layers of a building.

“Every step of building a home requires human input, which adds costs and carbon. With supply-chains longer and more complex than ever, materials have become increasingly expensive, carbon-intensive and wasteful. Earthbuilt reverses this,” Golembiewski said.

“Making a simple brick, for example, requires around 50 different processes and inputs. By contrast, Earthbuilt’s technology uses only three: earth, fibre and energy. When integrated with advanced robotics, Charlotte’s efficient and lightweight design minimises energy expenditure.”

Flood and fireproof, the Earthbuilt technology, combined with Charlotte’s agile and dynamic capabilities, makes it ideally suited to the Moon’s harsh conditions and able to operate in low gravity.

“Together with our partner Crest Robotics, we’re calling for collaborators to join us in developing, testing and scaling this new way of building homes that fuses innovations in construction and space technologies to address how we approach the housing crisis here in Australia and around the world while redefining Australia’s position in the international space community,” added Golembiewski.