4 ms·

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.)