Machine Prints 3D Copies Of Itself 341
TaeKwonDood writes "Automated machines have been around for decades. They have basically been dumb devices that do simple assembly tasks. But RepRap takes that a step further because, instead of assembling pre-fabricated parts, it creates 3-D objects by printing them — squirting molten plastic in layers — and then building them up as the plastic solidifies. It works on coat hooks, door handles and now it can even make working copies ... of itself. The miracle of additive fabrication, coming soon to a robotic overlord near you."
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*Aside from common stuff from a hardware store and an electronics store.
(Yes, I'm a RepRap developer, and yes, that's a cut-and-paste.)
Obligatory Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Professor Farnsworth: It can do other things, why shouldn't it!
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But really, claiming self-replication here is only slightly less laughable than someone claiming their inkjet printer is "self-replicating" because it can print the manual that comes in the box.
What we need is *quantification* - numbers. For example, choose one of the following measures:
* part count
* part cost
* part mass
* part compexity (harder to measure, but this is what really counts)
and then find the value of X in this statement:
"RepRap is X% self-replicating by [measure]"
My guess is that even by the most favorable measure (probably mass), the number is well under 50%, and by other measures it's under 10%.
But progress will be made, the value of X will increase, and that's what matters. Publicizing new values of X will attract attention and pique interest. Making unquantified claims of "self-replication" mostly just invites the fussing you're complaining about.
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Yes, they do. They're using a modified version of the open-source Art of Illusion 3D modelling software for this.
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It's a significant step - but the slashdot blurb wildly over-sells it.
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Let's be honest now (Score:3, Insightful)
I submit that without the capacity to manufacture a working integrated circuit, the claim that the device can replicate itself should be considered a deliberate act of fraud.
Bruce
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http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=514462&cid=22998000 [slashdot.org]
I for one welcome our new self-replicating Slashdot article overlords!
One step closer to the robot invasion (Score:5, Funny)
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Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dupe! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Funny)
# the copy is never exact.
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The RepRap itself actually does not replicate anything useful.
It would attract more audience if the inventor does not insist the
self replication feature. By replacing the ugly clear glue with hot
flowing chocolate, the machine will be 100 times more welcomed. Then
of course, cold air jet is needed to set the hot molten candy.
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Re:Dupe! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dupe! (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Dupe! (Score:4, Informative)
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a) perfect working copy
b) partial copy
don't get me wrong, it's an awesome device and hell who couldn't use a rapid prototyper at home? I know I could!
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I think the proper meme response is, "You must not be new here."
Re:Dupe! (Score:5, Informative)
The article gives little detail beside the price of the parts: how much time is necessary for the self-replication? what are the skills needed for the assembly?
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Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Sweet (Score:5, Informative)
In fact it can't print any structures that won't retain their shapes when melted to, say 5 degrees below their melting point.
The safe class of objects that it can print are those that are basically straight-up walls upon a flat base. The most complex stuff it would be able to print is a gothic castle (the ones with tiny windows), and you'd have to put the roofs on top of them afterwards.
The "full" class of objects it can print are those where a finite element stress analysis (*with* gravity active obviously) doesn't have any red spots.
(and now translation from technobabble to bad news
It can't print Gundam models. At least not directly. For a less limited class of objects you could make 2 half-negatives, allowing you to mass-produce them. You'd have to paint them afterwards.
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Close but... (Score:5, Informative)
FTA (emphasis mine):
=Smidge=
Re:Close but... (Score:5, Informative)
Also it has a big bunch of wires coming out the back, which I bet are not replicated either... so someone was jumping the gun a bit while writing this article
Still... this is some seriously cool technology... if the resulting plastic parts are strong / durable enough it could certainly have a huge impact... essentially being able to download physical objects from the internet...
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Self-replicating? Not by a long shot (Score:3, Interesting)
from what I gather it's only able to print the plastic connection parts, so I'm not sure how this counts as "self-replicating"
It doesn't. I'd say you can call something self-replicating if it can reproduce itself using only the essential raw materials. In this case: plastics, metal(s), energy. Perhaps a lot more ingredients, but at least those.
A good comparison is reproducing an OS in a Linux-From-Scratch style (using only source code, disk space and CPU cycles). *THE* thing you need is a C compiler. But to run that, you need a kernel, and a C library below. Then you need shell scripts to automate it, thus a shell. Most source
Re:Close but... (Score:4, Interesting)
I would galdly pay $300 to build on of these if it could build new plastic caps for the back of remote controls.
There are so many little pieces of plastic that break and make a product useless. If I could replace them after an hours work, I would be sooooo happy.
Reprap.org is self-contradictory (Score:2)
But below, it says: "You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself."
(Emphasis added)
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Re:Close but no cigar... (Score:3, Interesting)
For me, this is not a true quine, because there is no "#include<stdio.h>". It will not compile on typical C compilers. (There are longer quines that do have the include.)
Basically, you have to agree on a
Working copies you say? (Score:5, Funny)
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Bad business model (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bad business model (Score:5, Informative)
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So, yeah, people a
God I want one.. (Score:3, Informative)
If I still had my old Dell laptop I'd print the latch that broke off a few years ago.
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This machine replicates itself ... (Score:2, Informative)
Ahh, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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One of best marketing statements ever: (Score:5, Funny)
How did they make the first one? (Score:2, Funny)
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It's a bit like bootstrapping a compiler.
Let the Clone Wars Begin (Score:5, Funny)
Nope, don't think so... (Score:2)
I didn't even have to read TFA to know this ain't true...
Unless the machine can also make it's own electrical components...Gears and even parts of pumps I can believe, but without some way to move those electrons around, it ain't happenin'.
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The point is we have an easy way to make plastic parts that otherwise would have to be special ordered. This would complete any garage as a prototype fab. It would be amazing for lab work in which I always want a piece of plastic of a certain shape, but end up having to wait a week to get it made out of much more expensive metal in the
you silly robotic overlords (Score:4, Funny)
you forgot the part about who plugs you into the wall
who's in control now biatches!
Printcrime by Cory Doctorow (Score:5, Insightful)
Copy this story.
(originally published in Nature Magazine, January 2006)
Cory Doctorow
The coppers smashed my father's printer when I was eight. I remember the hot, cling-film-in-a-microwave smell of it, and Da's look of ferocious concentration as he filled it with fresh goop, and the warm, fresh-baked feel of the objects that came out of it.
The coppers came through the door with truncheons swinging, one of them reciting the terms of the warrant through a bullhorn. One of Da's customers had shopped him. The ipolice paid in high-grade pharmaceuticals -- performance enhancers, memory supplements, metabolic boosters. The kind of things that cost a fortune over the counter; the kind of things you could print at home, if you didn't mind the risk of having your kitchen filled with a sudden crush of big, beefy bodies, hard truncheons whistling through the air, smashing anyone and anything that got in the way.
They destroyed grandma's trunk, the one she'd brought from the old country. They smashed our little refrigerator and the purifier unit over the window. My tweetybird escaped death by hiding in a corner of his cage as a big, booted foot crushed most of it into a sad tangle of printer-wire.
Da. What they did to him. When he was done, he looked like he'd been brawling with an entire rugby side. They brought him out the door and let the newsies get a good look at him as they tossed him in the car. All the while a spokesman told the world that my Da's organized-crime bootlegging operation had been responsible for at least 20 million in contraband, and that my Da, the desperate villain, had resisted arrest.
I saw it all from my phone, in the remains of the sitting room, watching it on the screen and wondering how, just how anyone could look at our little flat and our terrible, manky estate and mistake it for the home of an organized crime kingpin. They took the printer away, of course, and displayed it like a trophy for the newsies. Its little shrine in the kitchenette seemed horribly empty. When I roused myself and picked up the flat and rescued my poor peeping tweetybird, I put a blender there. It was made out of printed parts, so it would only last a month before I'd need to print new bearings and other moving parts. Back then, I could take apart and reassemble anything that could be printed.
By the time I turned 18, they were ready to let Da out of prison. I'd visited him three times -- on my tenth birthday, on his fiftieth, and when Ma died. It had been two years since I'd last seen him and he was in bad shape. A prison fight had left him with a limp, and he looked over his shoulder so often it was like he had a tic. I was embarrassed when the minicab dropped us off in front of the estate, and tried to keep my distance from this ruined, limping skeleton as we went inside and up the stairs.
"Lanie," he said, as he sat me down. "You're a smart girl, I know that. You wouldn't know where your old Da could get a printer and some goop?"
I squeezed my hands into fists so tight my fingernails cut into my palms. I closed my eyes. "You've been in prison for ten years, Da. Ten. Years. You're going to risk another ten years to print out more blenders and pharma, more laptops and designer hats?"
He grinned. "I'm not stupid, Lanie. I've learned my lesson. There's no hat or laptop that's worth going to jail for. I'm not going to print none of that rubbish, never again." He had a cup of tea, and he drank it now like it was whisky, a sip and then a long, satisfied exhalation. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
"Come here, Lanie, let me whisper in your ear. Let me tell you the thing that I decided while I spent ten years in lockup. Come here and listen to your stupid Da."
I felt a guilty pang about ticking him off. He was off his rocker, that much was clear. God knew what he went through in prison. "What, Da?" I said, leaning in close.
"Lanie, I'm going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for everyone
Doom! Doom! Doom! (Score:5, Funny)
"Knock, knock"
"Who's there?"
"Candygram"
"You're not a self-replicating cybernetic organism?"
"No, ma'am"
No it doesn't (Score:2)
Star Trek Replicator (Score:4, Interesting)
Someone in an RIAA/MPAA thread said that since physical property was getting cheaper and cheaper to manufacture and took less and less people to make that we need to stake our future to IP. I say this is hogwash - I may be creative, but most people aren't.The record labels are already quaint anachronisms, and the movie studios will soon follow as the cost and necessary technical expertise drop. It no longer takes lots of gruntwork to make an album; the band and a guy running the studio is all you need now. What will those who have no creativity do for a living?
Heaven on earth is on its way and technology is bringing it here. And the greedy rich are fighting its arrival tooth and nail. Their sense of entitlement and feelings that they are better than the rest of us is sickening.
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Someone in an RIAA/MPAA thread said that since physical property was getting cheaper and cheaper to manufacture and took less and less people to make that we need to stake our future to IP. I say this is hogwash
I'd say it's worse than hogwash.
The argument is basically "physical property is getting cheaper and cheaper to manufacture, making it a difficult field to compete in... so let's compete in a field where the manufacturing/duplication is even cheaper (almost zero, actually).
It will be quite interesting to see how economy and law change as manufacturing prices drop further, or if "object printers" become commonplace. The same silly arguments that are currently used to restrict duplication of information
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Anyone want to print me off a set of parts? (Score:2)
self-replication, ha? (Score:2)
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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... bad printer
And here's the news from 2009... (Score:2)
The EULA, rather like the United States Constitution, is a "living document" constructed of active replicator parts. It periodically downloads updates and constantly improves itself to keep up with modern jet-age progress, and the latest court decisions.
The RIAA suggests you keep
Didn't they use this... (Score:2)
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Singularity? (Score:4, Funny)
I'll buy one (Score:2)
When do we all have one?? (Score:2)
So when do I get one?
I think I read it only takes a couple of hours? If the machine does that, the next day you have two, the next 4, the next 8,16,24,48... within a year everybody in the world could own such a machine, pretty cheap!
So if I know somebody who has this machine, I can easily get a copy now? That is so cool, saves me a lot of tinkering hehe!
Then nobody in the world will need to buy coat hooks and doornobs, we just fab it!
Video of RepRap (Score:2, Informative)
Er.... "give it to a friend"??? (Score:3, Insightful)
All it makes is its own brackets (Score:3, Interesting)
It doesn't make a "copy of itself". It doesn't make the plastic output device. It doesn't make the servomotors, the cables, the metal rods, or the control computer. All it actually makes, in fact, are the brackets used to assemble the other parts. The easy parts.
A manual Bridgeport milling machine, on the other hand, used to be considered "self-replicating". If you have a milling machine, a small foundry, a supply of good quality steel scrap, sand, and fuel, and a skilled machinist, you can eventually make another milling machine and all the foundry equipment. Factories that made Bridgeport milling machines (the design was widely copied) did in fact make them using Bridgeport milling machines. A good 1930s machine shop really can replicate itself with only a supply of good people and raw materials.
This machine is more hype than substance. It's just a mediocre stereolithography machine. If you want to use a good one, and you're in Silicon Valley, sign up with TechShop in Menlo Park. They have one, and it's not used much.
Re:All it makes is its own brackets (Score:4, Interesting)
Our ability to work with bulk materials has always lagged somewhat behind our ability to make specific, custom materials, in other words -- consider what I think is the highest point of materials science, directional solidification casting of turbine blades, where we have figured out how to control not only what goes in, but how the molecules structurally relate to one another in three dimensions. To build a universal 3D printer, we have to learn how to print more than just atom-by-atom: we actually have to figure out how to distort atom-by-atom printing to establish strain within materials -- and that's just to replicate things we're already building.
Anyone interested in further reading on 3d printers could stand to start by reading Saul Griffith's master thesis (pdf) [saulgriffith.com] on the subject. I'm building a larger version of the LEGO chocolate printer he discusses/documents in there, and I've gotten a couple of jobs by explaining to crabby old machinists how I managed to cut a new, true lathe spindle on my old lathe with a bent headstock spindle. The idea of self-healing and self-replicating machines has always fascinated me.
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You could say the same thing about womens' legs.
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Re:Toxic? (Score:4, Informative)
There are plenty of molten plastics that don't degas much, and there are some that are incredibly toxic. I haven't found anything about PLA yet, but I know a bit about lactic acid and it shouldn't be the health risk that, say, the stuff coming off melted polyvinyl chloride would be, or any nitrile-containing polymers. Molten nylon's not too bad, though.
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A standard C compiler (like GCC) will produce precisely an exact copy of the source code when the object code is executed at run-time.
The one thing that kept the contest from getting flooded with additional variations of this software was the requirement to be original and that nobody could use a previously published algorithm. This does make you think, however.