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Thread: Will a robot build your next house?

  1. #1
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Will a robot build your next house?

    http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/201...uilt-by-robotsWonder how long it will take for robots to mass produce homes onsite? Will they be free of corruption and fraud or shoddy workman ship by reviewing the design and judging that? Seems as though they may be more affordable.


    "In a California parking lot last July, a 50-foot wide, 12-foot tall semi-domed structure arose over just two days, as a a robotic arm mounted on self-driving, tank-like treads spent 13.5 hours depositing layer after layer of plastic foam until it ballooned into a giant yellow beehive. MIT hopes its Digital Construction Platform (DCP), which it presented in the journal Science Robotics in April, will lay the foundation for future buildings.

    “We’ve seen huge, huge advances through digital processes for the design side,” says lead author Steven Keating. “But we haven’t yet really seen that translate to the construction site.” Despite the alleged dawning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, builders still build much like they did before the first one: stacking rectangles, sometimes by hand.

    Construction is a massive industry, consuming more raw resources than any other and accounting for 11 percent of all global economic activity. It's inefficient, too: construction produces half of all US solid waste, which makes it a prime target for the precision that robotics offers...

    Still, some groups think they’ve made a breakthrough. In February, recent startup Apis Cor’s robotic arm built up layers of quick-drying concrete into the walls of what it calls the first on-site 3-D printed home. Completing the $10,000 model house took one month, including wiring and finishing, and printing the walls took one day, according to spokesperson Konstantin Nefedev..."
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    "Mass produce" and "onsite" seem like inherently opposing concepts.

    In my work producing affordable housing, I've had great luck using factory-built homes however, and I think robotic construction could do wonders here. For our application, there were huge advantages to having the structures build and mostly-finished in a factory, then delivered and installed on site. Schedule, quality, code compliance, environmental protection, pricing and financing advantages, and so on. The installed units are pretty much indistinguishable from site-built homes. I was amazed when the first showed up, and the bolt patterns for the foundation that the manufacturer had specified fit *perfectly*.

    In a recent trip to Scandinavia to examine some of their affordable housing solutions, I came across a variety of stackable, connectable modular housing units, sort of like giant Tinkertoy blocks, that looked quite comfortable and clearly could be mass-produced by robots in factories.

  3. #3
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I have been wondering about all the changes in employment opportunities that will come with using robots more and more. Housing seemed such a surprise to me for robotic application. So many trades are involved at present; some so good and some so really awful and yet selling these homes for hundreds of thousands of $$$ with housing shortage. I was also wondering what could meet the need for affordable housing and this seemed one possibility provided one can find serviceable land that doesn't remove essential food production capacity.
    Would some of the systems that you saw in Scandinavia meet the needs of the people living in the north, Bae? Substandard housing has been a recurring concern there for the aboriginal in various areas. Are there new sewage treatments that will resolve some contaminated water issues. I know that there are solutions developing in so many aspects of this housing need.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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