Minibuilders: Small robots printing big structures | Hacker News Reader

Minibuilders: Small robots printing big structures

monograph.io

139 pointsmoeamaya16 comments

When I hear 3D printing being dismissed for printing shitty plastic toys, I yell on the inside. Yes it's a misnomer, and yes the media is mostly covering the most affordable machines. But the simplicity of the process, and the number of materials available is going to exponentially grow the applications in a very short amount of time.

Software is eating the world, and a 3D printer digesting material to make something new is the most direct and literal application of that idea.

At PrintToPeer we believe that the same software "operating system" will be able to control all 3D printers--regardless of the process or material--remotely through an API. The robots here are just a hardware "function" driving a subset of the process which could otherwise be made by a 50' tall 5 axis machine (if that were feasible).

There's no compaction, though. It just extrudes, toothpaste-like, and you hope it sticks. Like low-end little 3D printers.

Compare the Lil' Bubba Curb Extruder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZMpu4MKn8

This is a slip-form concrete device. Notice how it has a mold around the area being extruded, and the concrete is forced into place under pressure, so there's compaction and good adhesion.

Combining the two concepts has promise. The little robotic machines need forms and compaction to get up to the routine quality of concrete work.

This is cool, but combined with this solar powered sand-using 3D printing project, I think this could be really amazing! Its an idea I day dream about a lot - it would be so awesome to have structures automatically built out of sand, without having to pay for energy.

http://vimeo.com/25401444

That is art right there. I'm not sure it's thats useful on Earth where we have so much pre-existing infrastructure available for construction. However on the Moon or Mars it might be amazingly useful.

On the Moon or Mars was my immediate thought too. A team of robots could build a bunker by sealing off an impact crater for the first humans to live in.

However on Earth, I could easily imagine these robots being useful too. When they get more advanced, reducing/removing the human labour will mean we will get much cheaper buildings with really creative designs.

Now that I've seen it I share your dream. Thank you!

What about reinforcement? Is there any way to use rebar or mesh to make a stronger structure? It appears they can make a self-supporting arched roof shell, but surely these things can't make a bridge that would take even light traffic...?

I believe that very much depends on the printing material. It should be possible to use a concrete with very small fibers. These are called whiskers.

Whether that is enough to build a bridge I don't know, but material scientists are doing amazing things with concrete.

Its a concept that they've proven can work by building a prototype. I imagine the logical next step would be to extend the concept by building a second prototype that would do something better than this concept. As you can see they've limited themselves to building axis-symmetric structures to ensure the robot can drive unimpeded. A large proportion of existing buildings have rectangular shapes which these robots would also struggle to build. Its an experiment!

You wouldn't use the same design techniques for these that you would for traditional construction. You probably could make a bridge to take light traffic (hell, these were being built well before rebar was invented), but it wouldn't look familiar.

If you did want to go that way, though, I'd look at one robot to set up a rebar mesh, another to climb up that scaffold to form a mold around the mesh, then a third to compact a concrete pour between the two.

This is scarily close to the designs I have been cadding up in the past few weeks. Mine looks more like a wheeled spider though.

Oh jeez, the ones in the video reminded me enough of the replicators from Stargate as it is...

This is how I imagine we will 3d print structures in space, in conjunction with this jpl's metal printing tech http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-247

I've wondered for a long time now: If battery tech can improve enough construction might look like renting an army of thousands or millions of small worker bots, with a couple guys at the command truck, or whatever, coordinating the movement of dirt or the depositing of materials, each bot moving a gram or two at a time.

(warning: slightly off topic) How cool would it be to automate ecological construction in similar ways? Straw bales, straw clay, lime render layer, maybe even compressed earth bricks?

Make that open hardware, and you have a real winner for society at wide.

Ha one of my most dreamed dreams.

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