House building robot in action -- not as exciting as it sounds

We were kind of hoping for more lasers, explosions and flashy sound effects, but we suppose this will have to do. The YouTubes have delivered unto us some incredibly boring (yet strangely mesmerizing) video of a mini-version of this bot doing its concrete / gypsum laying, house building thing we were hearing about yesterday. Apparently a second robotic arm handles the roof supports that the bot then slaps more concrete on top of, so you won't be able to see any roof building action here, in case that's your thing or whatever. Peep the vid after the break.

[Via Inhabitat]

[James Crasta @ Jan 18th 2007 9:41AM]

I, for one, welcome our new clover-shaped house-building overlords.





Seriously though, I can't imagine them making a life-sized version of that. surely it's going to be unweildy making a device with a robotic arm large enough to support some sort of device for making 1ft-thick walls as neccessitated by many buildings, and long enough to span the entire building?

[Andrew Jones @ Jan 18th 2007 11:00AM]

As I recall, this was primarily intended for developing countries and disaster support services. Concrete walls can support a 1-story structure while being incredibly thin. Adding a second story is possibly by letting the first story harden and adding support beams on top - very cool stuff.

Also - is it just me or is the first item being made suspiciously similiar to the gametap logo?

[foxdude @ Jan 18th 2007 11:23AM]

The way the first object looks, if you could support the second floor entirely by beans from the ground you'd have stairs at any wall of the house to climb to the second floor!

[Chris @ Jan 18th 2007 12:08PM]

it takes quite a while for concrete to cure, will the lower layers really be dry enough to support the weight by the time it hits 10 ft tall? I guess it could, seeing as conrcete can only be delivered so fast, but then what's the advantage of this over tilt-up construction? it certainly can't be faster as it will take some time to transport, assemble, and then disassemble the "robot".

[enzo @ Jan 18th 2007 12:11PM]

hmm, so no square houses?

[joel @ Jan 18th 2007 1:27PM]

This is a video of a rapid prototyper and have been used for years by designers. Whatever you design in CAD it creates layer by layer, obviously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_prototyping

[Ashwin @ Jan 18th 2007 4:15PM]

How does the robot put the steel reinforcement into the concrete?
If there is no reinforcement in the concrete the walls will be brittle .

[Rick @ Jan 18th 2007 8:53PM]

The demonstration may be a little dull, but the implications for the construction industry and the economy as a whole are way more important.

[Murc @ Jan 18th 2007 9:23PM]

thats pretty cool.

[ultra @ Jan 19th 2007 1:15PM]

Here is another similar type of technology:

http://www.contourcrafting.org/

[rave @ Jan 20th 2007 10:12AM]

House building - prison cell blocks for the warrior droids to hold their prisoner/workers human slaves more like!