When completed, Armor 1 will include six, independent, robotic cranes. These cranes will pick up the large concrete squares from the supply barge and place them on the “mat deck” of Armor 1’s manufacturing barge. There, the individual squares will be tied together into one 140 ft wide (and up to 900 ft long) flexible “mat” by an automated tie system (also engineered by NREC). The completed mat will be launched from the barge and will be submerged along the banks of the Mississippi River, while more mats are continuously being assembled on the deck.
Several important aspects of the system are:

1. Coordinated motions of multiple arms, working together on a shared space, while also being cognizant of human workers in the vicinity
2. Fail-over capability, such that if one arm becomes inoperable, it can quickly and easily be disengaged and another arm can do the work of both
3. Fully automated tying of the mats providing increased worker safety by reducing the number of workers required to be present on the mat deck area
4. Automated mat cut-off operations eliminating the need for potentially hazardous manual operations

The Armor 1 system is scheduled to be deployed and begin operations on the Mississippi in 2025.