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Robotic Fabricator Could Change the Way Buildings Are Constructed

103 points by itamarst 10y ago

ape4 10y ago
The photo kind of makes me laugh. There's the robot building this nifty spiral rebar sculpture when we just want it to do some regular framing.
- bdamm 10y ago
  The point is that the robots can build things that would otherwise be too time consuming to build, on site, with higher precision than previously possible, and with a feedback mechanism that can adapt to the environment. So yeah, surely the robot can build a rectangular rebar structure. But, it can also make other shapes which could be structurally interesting in addition to aesthetic.
- jobu 10y ago
  Exactly what I was thinking - it's interesting, but not very practical or useful. Onsite automated construction is likely a long ways off, but they do it right now for prefab house production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-g0Ubp-Qng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-g0Ubp-Qng
- sparky_z 10y ago
  Spiral rebar layouts are very common in circular columns, especially in area of high seismic activity. It's a bit more difficult to manufacture than the alternative (evenly-spaced "hoops"), but it gives the column higher ductility during a failure event so that the affected people inside/on the structure have more time to escape. http://www.insteel.com/media/8177/Spirals%20Brochure%20wo%20Back%20Page.pdf http://www.insteel.com/media/8177/Spirals%20Brochure%20wo%20... Edit: I have to admit, I didn't look too closely at the photo until just now. That is a weird thing they're doing, but I could see it possibly being useful for fancy architectural columns, even decorative ones. (I suppose that sort of application is where they're likely to find early adopters.)
VikingCoder 10y ago
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjcXJ8EU48o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjcXJ8EU48o
- TamDenholm 10y ago
  Thanks for the video, looks really interesting. The one thing i noticed was that those bricks look suspiciously perfect. If it gets to a stage where it can handle non-perfect standard bricks, discarding broken ones etc, that would be interesting. Still a great proof of concept though.
  - david-given 10y ago
    I think they're metal, and it's using an electromagnet to pick them up. ...I've seen 3D printed faux-sandstone back in, um, 2012 or so? And news reports show that Dubai has just announced a 3D printed office, although I can't find any pictures of it in construction. Here's a (moderately terrible) video of a 3D printed building in the Phillipines under construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTSakUtxXYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTSakUtxXYY And here's a much better one of what looks like similar technology in a testbed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPJdpGV8mE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPJdpGV8mE
    - riskable 10y ago
      No and no. Those are just standard (albeit colored) bricks and it was using a vacuum clamp to pick them up. If you're thinking, "there's no way you can pick up a brick with a vacuum; it's too porous." Think again. The hottest thing in woodworking right now is Festool's new vacuum clamp. I've personally witnessed it holding on to a cinder block so strongly that I could not pull it off with all my might.
      - LeifCarrotson 10y ago
        Interesting that you call it new. In industrial textile manufacturing, vacuum tables have been around for a long, long time. It doesn't matter if your leather is perforated or your upholstery is somewhat porous, or even if your foam is open-cell: A differential of just a few PSI, multiplied by width, multiplied by height, results in a lot of holding power.
jamestimmins 10y ago
This reads exactly like a press release, especially the way it addresses the limitations of the robot. Makes me think of PG's essay Submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- djyaz1200 10y ago
  Thank you, very interesting essay. "...I didn't realize you could write as candidly and informally as you would if you were writing to a friend..."
  - jamestimmins 10y ago
    His essays are definitely worth diving into if you haven't done so already. I don't agree with everything he writes, but I often find myself thinking back to points he's made or just ways he looks at problems. The one on Schlep Blindness is particularly insightful.
    - djyaz1200 10y ago
      Also good, thx :)
nerdponx 10y ago
Why "must" it be connected to the Internet for the architect (or more realistically the contractor) to make changes? Why can't they do it on site from a console?
- gravypod 10y ago
  Because then they can't get shafted by the company's crazy storage and service costs and they'd miss out on a few bucks at the expense of usability. And I mean who cares about that while developing? You aren't the sucker using it!
ksec 10y ago
I admit i am out of my depth here. Correct me if i am wrong. I dont think construction needs to be made faster. I needs to be of higher quality. ( Ignore the land issues for a moment ) You could built a 60 floor Skyscraper in less then a month. What we need is a much faster, semi / automatic way of internal renovation in each floors. Door, Glass Fitting, Pipes and Electrical Wiring etc. And all of these needs to be of high quality finishing. Taking into account of Temperature variation, lighting. Making building with the precision level of a Smartphone. Even today, you could see building with Windows not aligned perfectly, floor line running slight wide, floor not perfectly level. Or even Windows with Leaking Water. May be all of these are specific to Hong Kong, where we paid the highest price per Square Feet in the world and get absolutely dismal quality of building.
- oxide 10y ago
  My grandparents just moved into a new home, only after the deal was closed did anyone notice that the washer and dryer water tap was built directly above the washer and dryer electrical outlet. I've never seen such a thing, it's basically the same as an outside garden hose tap, installed directly above the electrical outlet. that's not something I'd normally know to go looking for, so I doubt I'd have seen it myself if I was with them looking at the place.
  - adanto6840 10y ago
    Surprised that it would be up to code and pass inspection really.
    - oxide 10y ago
      I thought the same thing. What can be done though? They have a home warranty that's good til next year, but I doubt it covers incompetence, and I don't think they could survive another move financially or physically. It covers shit like garage door openers (which was installed backwards, as we found out after moving in) but we'd have to pay a service fee we can't afford just yet. The guy they sent out to help with our plumbing emergency doesn't give me high hopes in who they'll send to fix the garage door. The guy who built this place stripped it to the frame and rebuilt it with a team of the lowest bidding crackhead contractors, from what I can tell.
idid 10y ago
Interesting read. I question though the need for a robot: why don't we use said sensing tech to empower Bob the Builder to "position brick within a seven mm" tolerance, and have the added advantage of well honed human heuristics judging a much wider variety of situations? From personal experience, the constraints that robotic manufacturing introduce in the design of an architectural object are huge: you end up designing specifically for the affordances of these tools, to the extent that you sometimes get nonsensical results.

103 points by itamarst 10y ago

ape4 10y ago

The photo kind of makes me laugh. There's the robot building this nifty spiral rebar sculpture when we just want it to do some regular framing.

bdamm 10y ago
The point is that the robots can build things that would otherwise be too time consuming to build, on site, with higher precision than previously possible, and with a feedback mechanism that can adapt to the environment. So yeah, surely the robot can build a rectangular rebar structure. But, it can also make other shapes which could be structurally interesting in addition to aesthetic.
jobu 10y ago
Exactly what I was thinking - it's interesting, but not very practical or useful. Onsite automated construction is likely a long ways off, but they do it right now for prefab house production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-g0Ubp-Qng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-g0Ubp-Qng
sparky_z 10y ago
Spiral rebar layouts are very common in circular columns, especially in area of high seismic activity. It's a bit more difficult to manufacture than the alternative (evenly-spaced "hoops"), but it gives the column higher ductility during a failure event so that the affected people inside/on the structure have more time to escape. http://www.insteel.com/media/8177/Spirals%20Brochure%20wo%20Back%20Page.pdf http://www.insteel.com/media/8177/Spirals%20Brochure%20wo%20... Edit: I have to admit, I didn't look too closely at the photo until just now. That is a weird thing they're doing, but I could see it possibly being useful for fancy architectural columns, even decorative ones. (I suppose that sort of application is where they're likely to find early adopters.)

VikingCoder 10y ago

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjcXJ8EU48o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjcXJ8EU48o

TamDenholm 10y ago
Thanks for the video, looks really interesting. The one thing i noticed was that those bricks look suspiciously perfect. If it gets to a stage where it can handle non-perfect standard bricks, discarding broken ones etc, that would be interesting. Still a great proof of concept though.
- david-given 10y ago
  I think they're metal, and it's using an electromagnet to pick them up. ...I've seen 3D printed faux-sandstone back in, um, 2012 or so? And news reports show that Dubai has just announced a 3D printed office, although I can't find any pictures of it in construction. Here's a (moderately terrible) video of a 3D printed building in the Phillipines under construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTSakUtxXYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTSakUtxXYY And here's a much better one of what looks like similar technology in a testbed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPJdpGV8mE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPJdpGV8mE
  - riskable 10y ago
    No and no. Those are just standard (albeit colored) bricks and it was using a vacuum clamp to pick them up. If you're thinking, "there's no way you can pick up a brick with a vacuum; it's too porous." Think again. The hottest thing in woodworking right now is Festool's new vacuum clamp. I've personally witnessed it holding on to a cinder block so strongly that I could not pull it off with all my might.
    - LeifCarrotson 10y ago
      Interesting that you call it new. In industrial textile manufacturing, vacuum tables have been around for a long, long time. It doesn't matter if your leather is perforated or your upholstery is somewhat porous, or even if your foam is open-cell: A differential of just a few PSI, multiplied by width, multiplied by height, results in a lot of holding power.

jamestimmins 10y ago

This reads exactly like a press release, especially the way it addresses the limitations of the robot. Makes me think of PG's essay Submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

djyaz1200 10y ago
Thank you, very interesting essay. "...I didn't realize you could write as candidly and informally as you would if you were writing to a friend..."
- jamestimmins 10y ago
  His essays are definitely worth diving into if you haven't done so already. I don't agree with everything he writes, but I often find myself thinking back to points he's made or just ways he looks at problems. The one on Schlep Blindness is particularly insightful.
  - djyaz1200 10y ago
    Also good, thx :)

nerdponx 10y ago

Why "must" it be connected to the Internet for the architect (or more realistically the contractor) to make changes? Why can't they do it on site from a console?

gravypod 10y ago
Because then they can't get shafted by the company's crazy storage and service costs and they'd miss out on a few bucks at the expense of usability. And I mean who cares about that while developing? You aren't the sucker using it!

ksec 10y ago

I admit i am out of my depth here. Correct me if i am wrong. I dont think construction needs to be made faster. I needs to be of higher quality. ( Ignore the land issues for a moment ) You could built a 60 floor Skyscraper in less then a month. What we need is a much faster, semi / automatic way of internal renovation in each floors. Door, Glass Fitting, Pipes and Electrical Wiring etc. And all of these needs to be of high quality finishing. Taking into account of Temperature variation, lighting. Making building with the precision level of a Smartphone. Even today, you could see building with Windows not aligned perfectly, floor line running slight wide, floor not perfectly level. Or even Windows with Leaking Water. May be all of these are specific to Hong Kong, where we paid the highest price per Square Feet in the world and get absolutely dismal quality of building.

oxide 10y ago
My grandparents just moved into a new home, only after the deal was closed did anyone notice that the washer and dryer water tap was built directly above the washer and dryer electrical outlet. I've never seen such a thing, it's basically the same as an outside garden hose tap, installed directly above the electrical outlet. that's not something I'd normally know to go looking for, so I doubt I'd have seen it myself if I was with them looking at the place.
- adanto6840 10y ago
  Surprised that it would be up to code and pass inspection really.
  - oxide 10y ago
    I thought the same thing. What can be done though? They have a home warranty that's good til next year, but I doubt it covers incompetence, and I don't think they could survive another move financially or physically. It covers shit like garage door openers (which was installed backwards, as we found out after moving in) but we'd have to pay a service fee we can't afford just yet. The guy they sent out to help with our plumbing emergency doesn't give me high hopes in who they'll send to fix the garage door. The guy who built this place stripped it to the frame and rebuilt it with a team of the lowest bidding crackhead contractors, from what I can tell.

idid 10y ago

Interesting read. I question though the need for a robot: why don't we use said sensing tech to empower Bob the Builder to "position brick within a seven mm" tolerance, and have the added advantage of well honed human heuristics judging a much wider variety of situations? From personal experience, the constraints that robotic manufacturing introduce in the design of an architectural object are huge: you end up designing specifically for the affordances of these tools, to the extent that you sometimes get nonsensical results.