An apparatus for labeling support structures includes: a chassis having a locomotive assembly, and supporting a label generator and an effector assembly with an end movable relative to the chassis and carrying a label manipulator with an image sensor; a controller coupled to the locomotive assembly, label generator, effector assembly and label manipulator, and configured to: obtain label placement data defining a location relative to a support structure reference feature for replacement of a previous label with a new label; control the locomotive assembly to travel to the support structure; detect the reference feature via image data captured at the image sensor; control the effector assembly to place the label manipulator at the location relative to the reference feature; control the effector assembly and the label manipulator to remove and discard the previous label, retrieve the new label from the label generator, and place the new label at the location.