3D Printing and Robotics… The Future for Construction?

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The technique of 3D printing has been around since the first days of inkjet printers. Architects in Amsterdam are planning to have the world’s first 3D-printed house completed before the end of the year! Check out how quickly this technology is developing.

The technology can now print in over 26 different materials including concrete, glass and even human skin cells (watch this astonishing TED talk
on how surgeons ‘printed’ a working human bladder!) . Designs and
modeling are changing and the 3D information at the front end is
critical to their success.

This post follows on from my recent presentation at the UDIA Brisbane conference – you can watch the full length webinar video HERE. 3D printing has two applications for construction; on site and off site. In this presentation I not only explored the concept of on site and off site 3D printing for prefabrication and construction, but also robotics. Could agile swarming robots be the future for construction projects? As explained in the video, parametric models and algorithms are used by the robots to then build structures autonomously. However, construction is not the only application for these small agile swarming robots. A flying robot can enter an unknown building to collect information and populate a 3D model from that information.

Again, this is not new technology – the camera that is used on these flying robots is based on technology created for Microsoft’s Kinect computer gaming experience. The interesting thing is how these technologies are being applied, especially in the construction industry and what it will mean for construction costs.