The Charlotte prototype, with help from the NSW government, was originally designed for NASA’s Artemis Space mission as a drone to transform raw regolith (loose, broken rock on Earth and the moon) into durable habitats.
It was recently pitched at the International Astronautical Congress 2025 in Sydney for its ability to assist lunar construction missions.
Company founder Dr Jan Golembiewski said the same capability could enable defence forces to build secure, sustainable structures using local earth sand and gravel; potentially reducing supply chains and operational risk.
“A bigger, defence-oriented version is in our sights. Imagine a camouflaged construction drone engineered to build bulletproof critical infrastructure in war zones?” he said.
“I’m sure we can make a bigger version that produces walls that a tank would struggle with.
“It’s all research and development from here. We’ve been thinking about a version that produces gabions (rectangular steel wire baskets filled with rock and stacked atop one another to form walls) for four years.”
Under the change in direction, it’s expected that Charlotte could be capable of autonomously constructing 300mm thick, solid, blast-resistant walls, bunkers, and perimeter defences at speed, according to Golembiewski.
By leveraging local earth, he said it can establish forward operating bases in hours, not weeks, without exposing personnel to enemy fire during construction.
Such earthen tents could potentially offer bulletproof, small-explosive-resistant shelters with thermal insulation, stealth profiles and rapid scalability.
In addition, Golembiewski championed the prototype as a rapid, autonomous solution to protect infrastructure, protect military and civilian lives and restore stability in humanitarian crises requiring immediate infrastructure, such as flooding.
“We think the next generation of Charlotte will be a paradigm shift in military engineering. By harnessing local resources and autonomous robotics, we can build faster, safer and smarter, whether on the home front, the battlefield, in disaster zones, or even on the moon,” Golembiewski said.