Battery swapping systems are in use in several parts of the world, mostly Asia, for trucks and taxis. There's no reason it can't be applied to construction equipment.
That still means the bots need to leave the spot they are working, move to a swap location, swap, and come back to where they were every hour or two (or less, depending on how much motion is required for the job). And that's a lot of packs. Two per if you can fully recharge faster than they discharge. In reality probably need 3 per robot.
In fact there are fully automated and fully electric open pit mines in China already.
With battery powered humanoid robots? And to be clear that's what I was referring to. I even called out specialized larger robots as an alternative in some phases of construction. Those probably could be tethered, or even use on-board diesel generators instead of batteries. They could also carry much larger batteries. Humanoid robots are going to be constrained to batteries that fit into their form. 1-2 hours is based on current bots in China.
The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone
