3D Printers To Build Houses 305
gbjbaanb writes to point out an article in the Sunday Times describing two separate programs where robots are being developed to build houses. The Los Angeles project is farther along than the one in the UK, but the article provides more details on the techniques employed in the latter. Liquid concrete and gypsum will be sprayed from nozzles in a manner analogous to an inkjet printer. From the article: "The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-story house built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be erected in California before April. The robots are rigged to a metal frame, enabling them to shuttle in three dimensions and assemble the structure of the house layer by layer. The sole foreman on site operates a computer programmed with the designer's plans... Inspired by the inkjet printer, the technology goes far beyond the techniques already used for prefabricated homes. 'This will remove all the limitations of traditional building,' said [an architect involved with the UK project]. 'Anything you can dream you can build.'"
Bugs? (Score:2)
Re:Bugs? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bugs? (Score:5, Funny)
Neat (Score:2)
From the article (Score:3, Informative)
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Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
"Anything you can dream you can build."
That seems overly optimistic. I think there are a few laws of physics that would disagree.
Dreams (Score:2)
But now, they can just have a computer give them a BSOD.
What about this revision? (Score:2)
They didn't mention.... (Score:3, Funny)
They said that it could be built. They didn't mention if the built structure had to still hold together once the scaffold is removed...
Re:Uh... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:That seems overly optimistic (Score:3, Insightful)
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Inkjet Plumbing? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Of course how that device works is another issue, but you could end up with a single mobile 'rig' which can just move along an empty row of plots and build houses all day. Quicker and cheaper than a load of builders.
Re:Inkjet Plumbing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Inkjet Plumbing? (Score:4, Interesting)
True. The building trades are moving towards technologies that can be automated. For instance, plumbing is using a plastic semi-rigid tubing called PEX. It's sold in sticks, but is flexible enough to be delivered on large reels. It's crimped onto brass connectors - nothing that couldn't be done by a robot. A regular plumber would do the finish work of connecting the toilets, sinks, baths, water heaters, etc.
Same thing for electrical work. Most houses are wired with Romex, and 3M introduced a crimp Romex joint that could easily be applied by a robot. The robot could ink-jet print all the information about where the wire stubs coming out of the walls come from or go to. The electrician would then just finish the house by connecting the breaker panel, switches, outlets and lights.
There is virtually nothing running through the walls of a house - telephone, TV, alarm, heating and return air ducts, drains - that couldn't be installed with robotic labor.
The problem is that all these cost saving measures are going to eliminate a huge number of jobs. Read Marshall Brain's "Robotic Nation" essay [marshallbrain.com] to get an idea of the social ramifications.
Re:Inkjet Plumbing? RTFA (Score:3, Informative)
I've used the new push together plastic plumbing myself to fit a shower - its extremely easy and down right fool proof. As long as these ducts were smooth and gently curved at corvers pushing this piping down it should not be an issue - ditto for electricals (an
We'll still need Polish Plumbers (Score:3, Interesting)
How does it put the layer of insulation in the wall cavities? Is there a way of producing foamed concrete? That would be cool.
Finally "possibly even wallpaper". This is a really bad idea. I used to live in the Barbican [wikipedia.org] in London, which used textured concrete surfaces for the walls of its stairs and communal areas, and my knuckles still bear the scars
Need to start somewhere (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a couple of domestic robots, the Roomba and Scooba. I still need a vacuum cleaner and a mop, but only to handle the fiddly bits (stairs, furniture, round the back of the fridge etc.). The vast bulk of the work is handled by the two robots. I view these projects in the same way - they're a good starting point and will do a large amount of the work, but you'll still need some skill and manual work at the end to finish things off.
I used to live in the Barbican in London...
I'm working there and posting from there now. You have my deepest sympathies, horrible place. I'm from Sheffield - up there we dynamite places like the Barbican, not slap preservation orders on them.
Cheers,
Ian
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Though, it would likely be rather brittle.
You see, they are aggitated to remove the air pockets because thoose air pockets are one of the things that can cause it to crack.
Most new houses in the UK are built using aerated concrete blocks (e.g. "celcon") because these provide a better insulation, and building regulations now require an otherwise difficult-to-achieve 0.35 watts per square metre degree k
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We're talking about the building trade. You get your fair share of cowboys, regardless of the nationality of said cowboy. Don't read anything into it.
Test page? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Test page? (Score:5, Funny)
Super old (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Super old (Score:4, Funny)
The LA project... (Score:2)
A bit short on links... (Score:5, Informative)
A few links could of course have helped this article... I think contourcrafting.org [contourcrafting.org] seems to be more or less the right page for the California project. The videos and animations [isi.edu] are quite worth seeing.
For the Loughborough one, the closest I could come up with was Dr Soar's website [lboro.ac.uk]...
Organised crime (Score:3, Funny)
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How do they do the roof? (Score:2, Insightful)
(I'm hesitant asking this question, it might be blatantly obvious to everyone but me.
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After watching the video of a 3D printer posted a few days back, I don't really understand how they do the top of things. What do they do when the top is flat.
The way some 3D printers for rapid prototyping work is that they mix a type of glue with the material the object is made of -- let's say it's sand. So when you're building something, the printer is effectively outputting a cube of sand layer by layer but for each layer, where the object's structure is there's the cross-section of glue also laid down. I'm probably not explaining it that well, but I hope it makes sense. A flat surface will be supported by all of the sand that's beneath it. When the last
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Inkjet? (Score:3, Funny)
Who puts in the rebar? (Score:5, Interesting)
How does it stay watertight? Do they just mean it will keep the rain off for long enough to get a real roof installed? Or are they planning on leaving it with a concrete roof?
What keeps the concrete from slumping while it's being sprayed? Does someone have to put up forms ahead of time?
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It looks as if the 'forms' are laid by the robot as it pours the concrete.
No rebar means no concrete (Score:2)
In big structures, li
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Given other comments in this discussion is is probably worth noting that brick walls have no tensile strength, unreinforced concrete is better. As long as this a
Brilliant news for the 3rd World (Score:5, Insightful)
Currently what happens is that -- in the urbunising of people -- most people tend to build with whatever materials they have available leading to shanty-towns all over Africa with people living in shack-like hovels.
If this technology is able to deliver, and deliver cheaply, we might just have one of the technologies needed to bootstrap Africa out of abject poverty.
The other major problem, education, might just be in the hands of the OLPC guys...
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Assuming that building lots of houses is going to kick-start the economy, you could do it far more efficiently by letting real people do the work. For money. But where does the money come from, for the labour and for the materials?
Aid?
There have been so many "simple solutions" it's just not funny any more.
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Maybe. But if private property and rule of law was established instead of just dumping money, then people would be able to own their houses (and be relatively safe in the knowledge that a random warlord won't show up and take it), which again allows them to take out mortgages.
When people can lend money to build houses, they can choose other materials than banana peels and dirt.
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PC police would call what you are saying a "racist comment". Like distributing pork soup to the homeless :
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/brussels01040
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However, there are islamic banks that take no interest (taxes a loan in different ways), so even in the most islamic country you could take a loan from the most islamic bank
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Even most of the stuff this article permits is hotly debated in these countries, and most scholars agree that it is haram anyway.
The fact that you immediately attack me, unfortunately, is very stereotypical (and obviously intolerant). I do not know everything. If this disturbs you, go fuck yourself. If you wish to help me understand, then sure, I'd love to hear more.
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Besides, the simple fact that the nobel peace prize winner of last year was attacked by muslim clerics is telling.
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Muslim banks have an interesting way of getting around this. The bank pays to build the house, and thus owns the home. While you are making payments toward ownership, you pay rent to live in the home. In this way, Muslim banks effectively charge interest without charging interest.
Personally, I think they should call a duck a duck, but I suppose their arrangement has some interesting legal ramifications.
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Education is nice, but takes 10 years at least and parents WANT their children to kill "the other bastards" (for various definitions of "the other bastards"). E.g. terrorism in the west.
Then again
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Oh yes .. free trade, the solution for everything.
I'm sure there is plenty of free trade in most of the countries there. Heck, with enough money, you can probably buy any government official, from a lowly cop up to the head honcho (if anything like that exists and the country is not in a state of civil war and/or quasi-anarchy).
Free trade doesn't stamp out corruption. And
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define build time (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe the house can be built in 24 hours, but how long does it take to build the metal rails for the robots? Are the robots re
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There are two predomenant designs for the robots. Wall riders and a metal superstructure. The former actually uses the building it is making to gain height. It "draws" the wall structure, then rides up it collecting concrete from an elevated ground based pourer. once it's finished, it's rescued from the top of the wall structure. These appear to have pretty minimal potential as they've
Get your own one (Score:2)
Finally!!! (Score:2)
(I just read the headline, to be honest)
Homepage of the project (Score:5, Informative)
Much more details.
Pictures! (Score:2)
Here are some at least:
http://www.contourcrafting.org/ [contourcrafting.org]
A truly horrible idea (Score:3, Informative)
In the UK, there is usually a bloody good reason for the traditional building materials and designs in any area. Mass builders just drop standardised buildings at any angle to the weather which suits them, and then the owners wonder why the walls are always wet, or tiles fall off every time the prevailing wind blows.
The five year gap before it is due to be commercialised in the UK may be due to the development needed to address UK-specific building problems, but it is more likely just to be under funding.
In case you think this is Luddite prejudice, I live in a town where many houses date back to the 17th Century and are built of local materials. Part of the town centre was demolished in the 1970s to build small modern houses. Guess which houses had to be demolished less than 30 years later? New builds this century are already starting to look a bit decrepit as the wind and rain (which are thrown off by our local stone) do their work on cheap modern building materials.
Re:A truly horrible idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the recipe for mold is insufficient insulation and improper heating/ventilation habits.
None of these have particularly much to do with concrete, other than concrete requiring a few more cm of insulation on the outside than bricks.
Maybe not A truly horrible idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, I don't know how practical they are for everyday living, but I suspect they are no worse than typical modern rabbit-hutches.
The problem will be
find your building plot
get a d
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Do you really want to live in a concrete house in the English climate? Concrete is good for tropical and warm climates where rainfall is not too high, but in the UK where humidity is high most of the year it is a recipe for damp and mould. And, as the formet Soviet Union showed us, it does not make for a particularly attractive architecture.
Nothing to do with concrete. You can build pretty much anything you like with concrete. The Romans used it thousands of years ago.
http://www.romanconcrete.com/photos.htm [romanconcrete.com]
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I've been in a wide variety of homes over the years, be it living there, guest or whatever and frankly I find most modern homes are built like absoloute shit nowadays.
They are often small, cheaply built and flimsy - much like the consumer electronics we put up with nowadays.
They are very very often incredibly poorly energy efficient and require huge heating and cooling systems to be installed, under the assumption that cheap energy will be around forever
Too good to be true? (Score:2, Insightful)
Second thoughts: Hang on a sec. Sounds too good to be true.
I'm having visions of street after street, suburb after suburb, of awful robot-built houses right now.
Re:Too good to be true? (Score:4, Insightful)
Intricate details, decorations, and such will be much easier, and cheaper, to do using these robotic constructors.
It would be easy to get the finished plans, and add every bit of baroque extravagance to your house using a CAD program, and being able to preview it real-time. Everybody will have a chance to be a Gaudí [wikipedia.org].
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(Because the real underlying complaint is "Not everybody has the same tastes as me, and the same high prioritization of 'taste' as me".... that will always find a way to manifest in some complaint.)
Video's slashdotted (Score:5, Informative)
Astronomical potential (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't wait to see the business model (Score:2, Funny)
Within hours of release someone will have reverse engineered the 'ink' cartridge slot to take generic branded concrete bags, and the private keys for si
Hurray! (Score:2)
I don't think so..... (Score:5, Funny)
What will this do to housing prices? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, the robot won't change anything about the prices for real estate (which can be up to 50% of the price of the house), so ...
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sounds like a good idea, but (Score:2, Interesting)
Pros:
- Bathroom - no need to worry about water leaks since there are no cracks between concrete-blocks to any connecting room and to make it even better just spray the walls and floor with some type of water-seal to protect the concrete.
- Noise - No cracks in walls so the house should be quite isolated from external noise.
- Easy to add thermal and noise isolation in the building, just add a foam-spray nossle to the robot and you can have automatic isolatio
Technological revolution. (Score:2)
When I saw this, it was my first t
Foundation? (Score:2)
Welcome to the information age (Score:5, Funny)
The "Walls" house operating software (included with every new house purchase) scans all components of the house, several times a second, to check for unauthorised modifications or attempted duplication. It contacts the central licensing servers once a day to ensure that this design of house is licensed for construction at this location, validated against its built-in GPS receiver. If the GPS receiver cannot receive a signal, or the licensing server does not report that the building is approved at the current location, or the component validator detects unauthorised modifications, then the software will signal all the construction materials to shut down, causing the house to collapse and protecting you from the dangers of building piracy.
Building insurance companies welcomed the move, saying: "Before now, when a house fell down, we had to spend money on careful investigations to identify whether the house was constructed from properly licensed blueprints - but now we can be sure that any collapsed house is the result of building piracy, which voids the insurance policy".
Re:first post (Score:5, Funny)
Don't buy new cartridges (Score:5, Funny)
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Refills (Score:3, Funny)
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Not to mention it'll take five cartridges to fill the Housejet. Also for some bizzare reason the cheapest material cartridge, the wall cartridge, will cost more than either the window or electrical cartridge.
Giant Legos (Score:3, Interesting)
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That idea has already been done
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick [wikipedia.org]
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Hnnngghh (Score:2)
All the construction workers losing their jobs because of 'dem damn 'bots!' may shift to taking down rocks in order to save humankind from the floods. Until robots take over that business, too, that is.
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