Dive summary:

• A robot that is the result of a collaboration between DPR Construction and surveying gear-maker Trimble uses total-station technology to mark floors with drywall layouts faster than expert installers can do with tape measures and chalk lines – and the developers hope to speed it up by a factor of three.
• The "laybot" may get inkjet cartridges to replace its current felt-tip pens, and the development team hopes to get it up to 1,000 linear feet per hour from its current pace of 300 to 400 feet.
• The four-wheeled, battery-powered ,75-pound, 2-foot-by-2-foot critter needs an unobstructed view of the total-station system, which can make layouts with columns problematic, but it also shuts down if it encounters obstacles.

From the article:

"It's really a Swiss Army knife of possibilities," [Jim McCartney, a segment manager at Trimble] adds. The team hopes to field-test it later this year and is mum on cost estimates of the robot at this point.