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Robotics Printer Science Hardware Technology

MIT Creates 3D-Printing Robot That Can Construct a Home Off-Grid In 14 Hours (mit.edu) 62

Kristine Lofgren writes: Home building hasn't changed much over the years, but leave it to MIT to take things to the next level. A new technology built at MIT can construct a simple dome structure in 14 hours and it's powered by solar panels, so you can take it to remote areas. MIT's 3D-printing robot can construct the entire basic structure of a building and can be customized to fit the local terrain in ways that traditional methods can't do. It even has a built-in scoop so it can prepare the building site and gather its own construction materials. You can watch a video of the 3D-printing robot in action here.
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MIT Creates 3D-Printing Robot That Can Construct a Home Off-Grid In 14 Hours

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    Maybe that's a home in a third world country, but it's fucking garbage anywhere else.

  • by Selur ( 2745445 ) on Friday April 28, 2017 @09:26PM (#54323261)

    Apis Cor companys presentation (http://apis-cor.com/en/about/news/first-house) from last year seemed more impressive.
    (https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/03/10/2255217/3d-printed-house-constructed-on-site-in-one-day)
    Or am I missing something?

  • It can create the foam structure in about 14 hours. Then you have to insert your electric wiring and plumbing, then you have to pour over concrete and let it cure - a process that takes ~30 days.

    From the pictures it seems like the thing is stationary with a fairly 'short' arm so you'll be limited by the actual 'size' of the robot, a small igloo-type structure is all it seems to be capable of (although longer arms are probably feasible, they would obviously increase the base cost).

    • Re:Misleading title (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Friday April 28, 2017 @09:49PM (#54323339) Homepage

      Speaking of concrete. You can construct the basic structure, excluding footings, is just a couple of hours using precast concrete panels as, floors, walls and roof. Then depending upon fit out, it could be finished within a week. To accelerate construction is not that difficult but it is very expensive, even traditional forms of construction can be carried out very quickly, a traditional house quite easily complete in a month. As long as all required materials are all on site at the begging and all required labour is on standby ready to go and you are willing to pay for lighting the construction site to turn night into day and pay for a whole bunch of overtime and idle time. You can get a huge amount of work done in a very short amount of time, as long as you are willing to pay the required premium for it.

      Quickest form of construction would be an inflated structure. A high strength fabric, say a para-armind synthetic fibre cloth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org], inflated with a lightweight cementitious grout, so walls, roof, ceiling and finishes all in one fell swoop. You could do the same on the moon or even mars, just have to figure out how to turn moon dust (or mars soils) into cement and recover the water to be used again.

    • It's on caterpillar tracks. It can move. So presumably it could be programmed to produce a straight line or any other arbitrary shape.

    • by mikael ( 484 )

      It would be better if the robot was a real 3D print/plotter system which could do a complete home with all the concave and convex corners that a real home has.

      • From the right angle turns on the entrance, it can obviously do that.as long as the rectangular structure fits inside the proscribed sphere the machine can reach.

        However, pipes and domes are actually stronger than boxes tho they have more waste space unless your furniture is custom fitted (like a TV table with a rounded back).

        My question is how much does the foam cost?
        If it costs $20,000 to print $12,000 worth of the house then that's not worth much.

        Is it made from renewable materials?
        If it's not, it won't

  • by Tempest451 ( 791438 ) on Friday April 28, 2017 @09:30PM (#54323281)
    This was a much better presentation of the same principle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • by Ozoner ( 1406169 ) on Friday April 28, 2017 @09:39PM (#54323307)

    The problem is not building a cheap house, the problem is finding somewhere to put it.

    In my country (Australia) countless thousands of acres have been rezoned as "Farming" which means that it is illegal to build on less than 100 acres. The Real Estate Developers have bribed the corrupt councils to pass thousands of regulations which make it impossible to build, and instead force people to buy land in their ticky-tacky developments.

    We have the lowest population density in the world, and the highest house prices.

  • give me a helper that can use a tape measure, circular saw, and nailgun and we'll build you something 10 times as nice in 4 hours. hide your face MIT, this is cringe-worthy.
  • The basic structure is the fastest/cheapest part of building a house (and likely cheaper then this will ever be). It's all the rest of that takes time and money.
    You can also do it by hand, rather then hauling some expensive machine around that will be stolen from

    deployed to remote regions, for example in the developing world, or to areas for disaster relief after a major storm or earthquake

    also

    to provide durable shelter rapidly.

    What's wrong with tents and cots? Yes I've slept in a tent in the winter in Canada.

    Stick it on wheels and have it autonomously print the foam structure for a house foundation ready to pour concrete and I'm interested. It may not be cheaper, but

  • by Anonymous Coward

    and we will totally colonize Mars now. Elon Musk will pack a 14-hour MIT 3D printer to 3D print his retirement condo on Mars. Totally gonna happen.

    We don't have the Concorde anymore and the only technology that has improved in the last half-century is information processing, but we're totally gonna be a multi-planet species.

    I read about it.

  • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
    Eventually these smart kids will figure on putting more than one arm on the thing and cutting the build time in 1/2, 1/4, etc. As well as allowing them to do more than just one shape.
  • All this does is spray a foam plastic dome onto a pre-prepared surface.

    There are no foundations, no weatherproofing, nothing apart from the foam's natural adhesion to keep it in place. To claim this as some sort of "progress" fails to recognise that a few people could erect a similar sized tent in much less time.

  • Home and office builders and trades people are on the list of occupations about to vanish.
  • The robot managed to build a giant letter C in expanding foam. It is FAR from being a habitable building built in a day. It has no poured concrete (or steel reinforcers), no floor, no roof, no internal / external rendering, no windows, no plumbing, wiring, no damp seal, no partitions etc.

    All of that implies a team of builders turning up to finish what the robot started. And that kind of begs the question how much benefit was derived from hauling out a giant robot arm and tanker of foam in the first place.

  • wouldn't it be great to be able to get some land, build a "starter house", make some kids, build a new bigger one with more bedrooms, kick kids out to college, demo and build a smaller house better suited for retirement..

    if you like your neighborhood you can keep it :)

  • For some over sized masters level project that quite frankly isn't worth the time of day to anyone but the person who dreamed it up (nutty professor), the grad student who scratched the professor's itch, and the googly eyed parents who are sharing the video link to all their buddies on Facebook.

  • where is this for ? If it is for disaster relief it seems to me there would be no shortage of labor, send them something they can use to make their own houses. If it is for some distant planet then make a cave build-out robot.

Truly simple systems... require infinite testing. -- Norman Augustine

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