Robot builder could 'print' houses

New Scientist ^ | 3/10/04 | Max Glaskin

[LibWhacker]

A robot for "printing" houses is to be trialled by the construction industry. It takes instructions directly from an architect's computerised drawings and then squirts successive layers of concrete on top of one other to build up vertical walls and domed roofs.

The precision automaton could revolutionise building sites. It can work round the clock, in darkness and without tea breaks. It needs only power and a constant feed of semi-liquid construction material.

The key to the technology is a computer-guided nozzle that deposits a line of wet concrete, like toothpaste being squeezed onto a table. Two trowels attached to the nozzle then move to shape the deposit. The robot repeats its journey many times to raise the height and builds hollow walls before returning to fill them.

Engineer Behrokh Khoshnevis, at the University of Southern California, has been perfecting his "contour crafter" for more than a year. "The goal is to be able to completely construct a one-story, 2000-square foot home on site, in one day and without using human hands," he says.

Now Degussa AG, of Dýsseldorf, Germany, the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of building materials, is to collaborate on the project to help Khoshnevis find the best kind of building material.

Mud and straw

Khoshnevis has tested his prototype with cement but believes adobe, a mix of mud and straw that is dried by the Sun, could be suitable. But Degussa will be looking at other materials.

Gerhard Albrecht, head of research at Degussa's speciality materials subsidiary, Admixture, says the company is ready to develop materials specifically for the contour crafting technology.

Khoshnevis's prototype robot hangs from a movable overhead gantry, like the cranes at ship container depots. Khoshnevis speculates that they could also be ground-based, running along rails and able to build several houses at one time. But it would be more difficult to create autonomous wheeled robots that have sufficient accuracy and precision.

The first house will be built in 2005. If the technology is successful the robot could enable new designs that cannot be built using conventional methods, for example involving complex curving walls.

Greg Lynn, a leading architect from Venice, California, said. "I believe that aesthetically there's a great potential to make things that have never been seen before."

[steveo]

and without tea breaks.

Yeah, all those construction workers and their tea breaks.

[RightWhale]

Something close to this could build space habitats on the moon and Mars. A miner bot and a mixer bot and a who knows what bot would also be operating on site.

[MississippiMan]

Cool. A large-scale expansion of rapid prototyping technology. Since first learning of this kind of technology years ago, I've thought that we will someday "download" physical items, by downloading creation instructions into future household versions of today's prototyping machines.

MM

[tpaine]

Back when I was building, I always gave my crew some pie in the sky during our tea breaks.

[cripplecreek]

Having worked with painting robots before i can tell you that people are preferable.

Working with painting robots was a constant struggle against barometric changes, viscosity variables, and tempature changes. I must admit that there were no "tea breaks" for the bots, they just had to be shut down when the rest of us went on break.

Robots can consistently screw up the same part day in day out 365 days per year.

[Cogadh na Sith]

a who knows what bot would also be operating on site.

Union-thug bot and an illegal alien worksite clean-up bot, some OSHA bots and some inspector bots...

[Prodigal Son]

New Scientist is a British mag.

Yah, British Brickies take tea breaks.

[Servant of the 9]

This is just a conventional rapid prototyping system using concrete instead of plastic resin and, of course, much bigger.
I don't see any real software differences.

So9

[Texan5]

Tea breaks are very important-I always demand that my crew and I get at least two of them...

[Lunatic Fringe]

The goal is to be able to completely construct a one-story, 2000-square foot home on site, in one day and without using human hands,"

Incredible... the cost of a new home would essentially plummet to the cost of materials.

[NTegraT]

"and without tea breaks."

I guess this would work the same for siestas.

[Zeppo]

Ummmmm... Semi-liquid construction material...

[LibWhacker]

That would be perfect, RW! Thick-walled adobe buildings built by robots with Martian mud would be airtight and provide whatever protection from radiation we might need -- all built before the crews got there. We would need to find some way to extract or neutralize the smelly sulphur compounds in the mud, but things like that sould be relatively minor obstacles.

Boy . . . You can really see the future shaping up, if only people will allow it to happen!

[Judith Anne]

I just re-read I, Robot the other day...and I wondered why we don't have robots that look semi-human, working right now...

[RightWhale]

neutralize the smelly

The terraforming bots with the smell-good bot extension module option

[LibWhacker]

. . . there were no "tea breaks" for the bots, they just had to be shut down when the rest of us went on break.

Lol, now there's an unwelcome dose of reality, CC! Suffice it to say this technology isn't ready for primetime. We still have a ways to go. But man, I really hope we get there, though. Using something like this on the moon, or on Mars, etc., is very enticing, indeed. Not to mention that we would love to have mansions built for everyone essentially for the cost of the materials. *sigh* . . . Someday, maybe . . .

[templar]

Khoshnevis has tested his prototype with cement but believes adobe, a mix of mud and straw that is dried by the Sun, could be suitable.The advances being made in modern high tech building materials is amazing.

[RightWhale]

Strikebot mediationbot board

Gazooksbot!

[Normal4me]

I guess doors and windows might be a problem? Without forms how would the liquid concrete know to stop to form an opening? I like the idea of ICF's (Insulated Concrete Forms)that get poured solid with concrete. A good crew can do the same size house in a few days (with tea breaks ;-))