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The Giant Building Printer Robot
isi.edu — Layered fabrication technology can automate the construction of entire buildings.
reflex768- 525 diggs
- digg it
- prkchpsndwiches, on 09/06/2008, -2/+14This has so many endless possibilities. Really neat idea.
- saqer, on 09/07/2008, -9/+1right...endless possibilities to put people out of jobs. Neat ideas usually are catch22's.
- dsmx, on 09/07/2008, -1/+2I can make a giant lego house with it.
- sanman, on 09/07/2008, -0/+3With software and robotics, you could achieve incredibly complicated geometries that regular human builders would find problematic or very costly to do. The old neighborhood could end up looking pretty weird as a result, though. ;)
Take a look at ZPrinter 450, which does the same thing for printing small 3D models:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps0WEZbDjHE
- eze123, on 09/06/2008, -4/+9First car manufacturers are out of work because of robots and now construction workers will be next.
- mdcraig62, on 09/07/2008, -0/+4I'm not going to give away my hammers and drills just yet.
- brawltimore, on 09/07/2008, -0/+4what else would you use to kill the robots with?
- oneredeye, on 09/07/2008, -0/+8If the workers are out of work because of robots, than who operates the robots? This just raises the education bar for the industry which is a GOOD thing.
- Culyt, on 09/08/2008, -0/+2Except it doesn't, or at least not much.
You only need 1 operator, maybe a few maintenance people, mostly for putting the robot together and ensuring it has a feed of the stuff it makes building with. Building normally takes dozens of people. You will still need electricians to run the wire around and plumbers etc (at least for now, in theory it could print plastic pipes of just make them out of tunnels in the walls). People have to put in the sinks, light sockets etc...
Also many people who become construction workers didn't have much chance at getting a decent education anyway, being a builder isn't exactly a job most people pick. Hopefully with more of this happening a decent education will be easier to get (other technologies like the internet and future stuff like VR and whatnot can step in) and maybe the government will help ensure eduction is easy to get to keep the employment rate up.
Doesn't solve the problem for people who are just idiots and can't learn higher level stuff, but hopefully they will have less children and evolution will take care of that, I don't know how much stupidity is genetic and how much is upbringing.
☢
- Culyt, on 09/08/2008, -0/+2Except it doesn't, or at least not much.
- mdcraig62, on 09/07/2008, -0/+4I'm not going to give away my hammers and drills just yet.
- mwaleed86, on 09/07/2008, -3/+1Waooo!... (couldnt think more intelligent than that)
- carnagejoe, on 09/07/2008, -2/+13Will the construction worker robot make rude comments at attractive fembots as they pass by?
- GlassAgate, on 09/07/2008, -0/+6Next, there will be robot lawyers who take the worker robots
to court to file sexual harassment charges. The judge will also
be a robot. The won't speak in English. They'll run the case through
a super computer. The trial will all be over with in a matter of minutes.
The punishment: the guilty shall have his software downgraded for
two weeks.- MarkTaiwan, on 09/07/2008, -0/+3would making them divide by zero the death penalty?
- GlassAgate, on 09/08/2008, -0/+1If that isn't punishment, I don't know what would be.
- dacheetah, on 09/08/2008, -0/+1I know it's troll-like, but in the case of Vista, a "downgrade" to XP wouldn't really be a punishment...
- GlassAgate, on 09/07/2008, -0/+6Next, there will be robot lawyers who take the worker robots
- digitalhippie, on 09/07/2008, -1/+2We still have a long way to go before this is possible. But I'm hopeful.
- saqer, on 09/07/2008, -12/+1In other news today the unemployment rate jumped to a whopping 20%. Largely attributed to a lack of construction jobs, many middle class workers find themselves unemployed all thanks to the Building Printer....
Just because it sounds like a neat idea, doesn't mean it is.- NSResponder, on 09/07/2008, -1/+10"Broken window fallacy" Look it up, sunshine.
If people like you had their way, we'd still all be subsistence farmers.
-jcr- saqer, on 09/07/2008, -9/+1Right because fallacies dictate real life world conditions.
What about the black and white fallacy? "People like me had it their way". I would be at burger king, biatch.
- saqer, on 09/07/2008, -9/+1Right because fallacies dictate real life world conditions.
- NSResponder, on 09/07/2008, -1/+10"Broken window fallacy" Look it up, sunshine.
- AgmLauncher, on 09/07/2008, -1/+2I bet John Henry has something to say about this.
- oneredeye, on 09/07/2008, -1/+2What does laying rail have to do with building houses?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)- AgmLauncher, on 09/07/2008, -0/+2You missed it.
People in this topic are talking about machines replacing workers, which is precisely what the John Henry story is about.
- AgmLauncher, on 09/07/2008, -0/+2You missed it.
- oneredeye, on 09/07/2008, -1/+2What does laying rail have to do with building houses?
- penguin42, on 09/07/2008, -0/+3Hmm that's neat; however I'd worry about it for large scale construction - I can't see how you add the steel reenforcements.
I can see that you can leave holes etc for pipes - but not stuff actually embedded in the concrete; the inside of the wall also needs some work to get it smooth.
Still, it must do great plant pots. - zippy757, on 09/07/2008, -1/+3Neat...similar to what they use today to build curbs on highways etc ..
http://www.gomaco.com - Armorfist, on 09/07/2008, -1/+6Command & Conquer anyone?
- JBSpeed88, on 09/07/2008, -0/+3I can't seeing it doing anything horribly complex at this point, but it does have potential for a easy way to build cheap and inexpensive basic housing in the third world nations of the world.
- igul222, on 09/07/2008, -0/+2Video: http://tinyurl.com/6fhggo
- bluebirdgm, on 09/07/2008, -0/+4I'd love to see what happens with the Building Printer's equivalent of a paper jam.
- minorgods, on 09/07/2008, -0/+2or a virus that embeds dirty words onto a bathroom wall :)
- Sharky35, on 09/07/2008, -1/+1This is technology that can literally change the world, yet since this does not put McCain in a bad light it will zoom right past most IGNORANT diggers.
- aloyeo, on 09/07/2008, -0/+0I dunno.....the site looks like it's done in 30 min, and uses frames, in a really bad way....and is titled "Untitled Document"
Surely they can introduce this to the world in a little better way if it's gonna happen...- minorgods, on 09/07/2008, -0/+1They used the iWeb website printing robot
- iceman35, on 09/07/2008, -1/+1this will put a lot of people out of jobs
- Yittrium39, on 09/07/2008, -0/+0http://www.isi.edu/craft/CC/Welcome_files/resource ... -- build your own stairs!
- gotrootdude, on 09/08/2008, -0/+1
This would be interesting if.....
People weren't discussing how easy it'd be to make with the right money resources like over 20 years ago.
Why does everything take soooo long to get to market. - iillthe2nd, on 09/13/2008, -0/+1That building would take a blocking crew of 10 laborers 1 day to make. That is going to hard to beat cost wise. I would rather have a house built with ACS by someone like aercon http://www.designbuild-network.com/contractors/con ... It would be much stronger, but you have to live fairly close to a plant.
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