Since the Neolithic Era, humanity has been slowly perfecting the art and science of construction. While some of history’s greatest construction feats were built by hand, the relatively recent introduction of mechanized tools has drastically improved the building process.

It’s only been about two centuries since builders moved beyond hand tools to machinery like water-powered hydraulic cranes and steam rollers. But like many innovations stemming from the Industrial Revolution, these inventions merely amplified human muscles and were still big, dumb machines that required people to be constantly at the wheel.

As our technology gets smarter and computers become increasingly better at replicating human behavior, new machines that can do more than mimic human muscles are slowly becoming more common on job sites. Of course, humans are still part of the construction process — people like Clayton Maute, who recently became the second person in the United States to be certified as a Robotic Equipment Operator (REO) for construction jobs.