
Minibuilders: Small robots printing big structures - moeamaya
http://monograph.io/iaac/minibuilders
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fudged71
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).

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Animats
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](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.

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zoba
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](http://vimeo.com/25401444)

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flogic
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.

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patrickk
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.

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fernly
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...?

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jsilence
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.

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lotsofmangos
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.

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Untit1ed
Oh jeez, the ones in the video reminded me enough of the replicators from
Stargate as it is...

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adamwong246
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](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-247)

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ElComradio
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.

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markvdb
(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.

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agumonkey
Ha one of my most dreamed dreams.

