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 ;-))

[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.

[Cogadh na Sith]

The burritobot that comes around to all the work sites...

[Elliott Jackalope]

Actually, we do. Check out what Sony and Honda have been up to. Sony's QRIO is very interesting.

[No.6]

You were mentioning house construction quality in one of the economic doom threads? I thought this might be of interest.

[templar]

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

People are more than willing to allow it to happen. Financing it is the thing. I propose that everyone wanting to make it happen should divide the bill equally among themselves. They can share the profits or maintenance expenses (guess which one there will be) from the martian colonies among themselves too.

[RightWhale]

The brashwhistlebot for secretarybots on botbreak passing near the botworksite.

[battlegearboat]

Bot time somebody thot of this.

[LibWhacker]

I guess plumbing and electrical stuff, and nice interiors -- hardwood flooring, etc. -- would have to be put in by human hands after the shell was poured, but that's okay by me. Anything to get a nicer and a bigger house for fewer bucks.

[winodog]

He wants to build a house in a day? What about the foundation? The doors and windows? The plumbing, & electric? The insulation and furring, etc etc etc.
A couple of masons can build the same house just as quick. They dont say how thick the walls are but a few inches of concrete will not give you much insulation.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Hahaha!

I already designed a bot that just leans on it's shovel all day. The software wasn't hard to program...

[Recovering_Democrat]

Yeah, but uh, you still need me for the drywall!

[Tijeras_Slim]

This has been tried before... it turned out badly.

[BlazingArizona]

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.

Let's see now.. the Hewlett-Packard HouseJet would crank out subdivisons at the rate of 4 houses per minute, while upscale buyers could use an Apple HouseWriter to produce those California style "McMansions".

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.

This is what you would get if you bought the heavily discounted Brother All-In-One, which also has the ability to fax houses, except that drivers for this feature are never available for Windows XP.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[StriperSniper]

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 more things change...

;-)

[RightWhale]

Cars are built by bots. Welding, painting, all bots. Then there is the guy that drives it from the end of the assembly line to the loading dock, but that job is also going to be replaced by a bot. In fact, bots should be driving our cars for us anyway. What do we do, turn the wheel, push faster or slower, and forget to stop at stopsigns, forget to signal turns, drop our coffee in our laps, and otherwise screw up. Robots could do the driving and we could concentrate on coffee and catching up on email. Much better all around.

[Siegfried]

The only question I have is how do you get the bot to start creating the roof on the place? I mean, that first stripe of concrete from the top of the walls across the room opening will have to freeze almost instantly to avoid dropping like a wad of toothpaste, won't it?

[RightWhale]

The slurry would be a quick-setting mixture. Not too quick, though, or it would set up inside the nozzle. Sounds like a tricky business.

[blam]

"The only question I have is how do you get the bot to start creating the roof on the place? I mean, that first stripe of concrete from the top of the walls across the room opening will have to freeze almost instantly to avoid dropping like a wad of toothpaste, won't it?"

Just start with a large block of styrofoam. Once the concrete is dry on top and all sides, melt out the styrofoam with an acetone sprayer. There is no mention of rebar in this article.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... I've thought that we will someday "download" physical items, by downloading creation instructions into future household versions of today's prototyping machines."

Wait till the Brady Campaign calls for government snooping on your internet service to make sure that you're not downloading CAD/CAM files and having gatling guns built by your household robotic CNC milling machine.

In the meantime, I want a reduced eighth-scale Chrysler hemi for a go-cart I'm building.

I will be an early adopter of the consumer-scale home robot milling machine whenever it becomes available. I'm also afraid that I'd stop going to work.

[RightWhale]

Traditional spray concrete buildings start with a wire mesh frame. Probably a welderbot could creat this, but it wouldn't be a printerbot. They are probably thinking of 3D model printers for comparison.

[LibWhacker]

Wish I had been born 200 years from now! Things will be so much more interesting and cushier then. 'Course, that's the "tragedy" of every human life. Poor old Michelangelo and Isaac Newton, etc., never got to see the 21st Century, and if anybody deserved to see it, they did.

Still . . . I shoulda been born in 2148 instead of 1948! I'm gonna sue somebody! :-)

[LibWhacker]

There is no mention of rebar in this article.

I was thinking about that, too. Seems to me they're going to have to figure out how to use rebar, for safety, at least on Earth, and eventually on Mars. Don't want to be in a mud hut on Mars during a Mars quake!

[RightWhale]

Look at it this way: we're at the end of an age. The Age of Social Theory is over. The transition to the next thing is underway and nobody knows what it will be. New Ages are always surprising, and often very tough on societies, but maybe we can transition to space and robotics quickly and without upheaval. Or maybe not. A typical person born in 2200 might be a totally engineered clone, or might carry a spear to catch dinner. This is a perfectly good time to be around, all things considered.

[AngryJawa]

"It takes instructions directly from an architect's computerised drawings and then..."

Recipe for disaster, IMHO. The on-site common sense of builders have prevented countless numbers of major screw-ups dictated by the all-knowing architect's drawings. Good construction is a team sport.

[RightWhale]

old Michelangelo and Isaac Newton

Michelangelo might have been just another dropout at Mensa parties drawing fantastic robots in the air. Newton might have totally enjoyed the 60s and have worn a mood enhancement turban.

[coydog]

That's exactly what I was thinking. The gun control issue would be moot when people could simply download CAD/CAM files to their personal milling machines. All the gun stores and gun shows would be virtual then, and there would be plenty of um... 'toy' plans available for free on P2P.

COYDOG

[doug from upland]

What is going to happen when no one has a job?

[LibWhacker]

The transition to the next thing is underway and nobody knows what it will be.

Yep . . . Cryogenics customers, e.g., have NO IDEA what they're getting themselves into (not that I believe cryogenics can even work). But if it does, those folks might find they've jumped out of the frying pan into the worst hellish fire imaginable.

[RightWhale]

What is going to happen when no one has a job?

The proles will all become storekeepers. Jobs will be what robots do.