Maybe eventually, but I doubt we’ll see a house built entirely by machines from the bare ground, with the sewer and water system, electrical grid, roads, sidewalks street lights, etc. installed, to hand-over-the-key ready in our lifetimes.
I think many people imagine this is just around the corner is because they don’t have a clue what goes into such a project.
I just don’t see this taking off. The solution is werid.
Factory build houses seem way more likely but they also have big issues. Namely cost being a barrier to entry and scale. Hopefully china or India or even china in Africa sort it on a mass scale and the economics get proven.
Hell, I’m sure damn near any builder would happily sell you a fully furnished home. Even tract lot home builders in the middle of Nebraska. You might so annoy them that you’ll end up paying $50k for $10k worth of furniture, but I’m sure it could be done.
It would also be relatively appropriate for a 3D-printed concrete house, as it would be relatively easy to design the furniture as built-ins. Kinda like this, but, ya know, automated instead of handmade.
A gantry may not be required in the future. A gantry is used because it greatly simplifies the problem. The gantry allows a fixed known relationship between the print head, the ground, and what is being printed. A simple 3D printer can work completely blind.
But this need not be the only way to 3d print. It’s pointless to have a mobile 3D printer for desktop printing applications. But construction? The case may be different. Imagine a swarm of small robots, each a small cement mixer and print head. Hell, as absurd as it sounds, little flying printing drones might turn out to be a viable solution. The tech required for these is way beyond what is needed for a conventional fixed 3D printer. But it’s probably possible. You don’t set up a huge gantry for your giant house-sized 3D printer. Instead, you unleash a swarm of printing bots onto a construction site. They build up the house like bees assembling a hive from their own wax.
Now you might wonder if this could ever be financially viable. A swarm of printing robots? Well, historically, nothing changes technology faster than war. War forces innovation by necessity. Countries are getting really good at making absurd numbers of high quality robots cheaply.
For example, what’s going to happen to all the Ukrainian drone engineers once the war ends? Sure, some will stay in the defense industry, but peacetime defense budgets are always lower than those of a nation facing existential war. Imagine the minds that are currently inventing drones that can fly a hundred miles and autonomously hunt down and kill individual enemy soldiers. Apply minds like that to the construction automation problem, and suddenly a lot of doors open up.
I mean, without commenting on the state ore potential of 3D printing homes, american paper homes would not be the comparison I’d make. The prints are made of concrete, so I’d rather compare it to european housing (I don’t know enough about construction in asian or oceanic regions to compare it to anything there).
Yes, this house is being 3D printed out of concrete.
That’s just the shell. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, cabinets, roof–the rest is still built by hand and no, robots can’t do it.
Also, 3D printed buildings are failing, and very few have been built, they’re just experimental. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRLqld_jD_g
Maybe eventually, but I doubt we’ll see a house built entirely by machines from the bare ground, with the sewer and water system, electrical grid, roads, sidewalks street lights, etc. installed, to hand-over-the-key ready in our lifetimes.
I think many people imagine this is just around the corner is because they don’t have a clue what goes into such a project.
The printer doesn’t just appear, it takes a crew a week to set it up. Few years later and they are already failing and companies are drying up
The design is also made by a human, an AI would just make gibberish
Don’t take this more seriously than it was meant.
Therr isn’t even anything “AI” in it, just more robot work.
They also don’t have a track record to speak of yet.
They have issues as well. https://hackaday.com/2023/11/29/iowa-demolishes-its-first-3d-printed-house/
I just don’t see this taking off. The solution is werid.
Factory build houses seem way more likely but they also have big issues. Namely cost being a barrier to entry and scale. Hopefully china or India or even china in Africa sort it on a mass scale and the economics get proven.
And I’m sure AI will be able to do all the wiring and plumbing and decorating /s
Wait, you buy predecorated homes?
They are called “fully furnished” and it is especially common in condos and beach houses and similar.
Hell, I’m sure damn near any builder would happily sell you a fully furnished home. Even tract lot home builders in the middle of Nebraska. You might so annoy them that you’ll end up paying $50k for $10k worth of furniture, but I’m sure it could be done.
It would also be relatively appropriate for a 3D-printed concrete house, as it would be relatively easy to design the furniture as built-ins. Kinda like this, but, ya know, automated instead of handmade.
Okay, “furnitured appartments” sounds a lot different to what I imagined when I read decoration being a “finishing step in home construction”.
3D printed houses are another tech scam.
More expensive, and already failing. It the time it takes to setup a gantry a small crew could frame an entire house.
A gantry may not be required in the future. A gantry is used because it greatly simplifies the problem. The gantry allows a fixed known relationship between the print head, the ground, and what is being printed. A simple 3D printer can work completely blind.
But this need not be the only way to 3d print. It’s pointless to have a mobile 3D printer for desktop printing applications. But construction? The case may be different. Imagine a swarm of small robots, each a small cement mixer and print head. Hell, as absurd as it sounds, little flying printing drones might turn out to be a viable solution. The tech required for these is way beyond what is needed for a conventional fixed 3D printer. But it’s probably possible. You don’t set up a huge gantry for your giant house-sized 3D printer. Instead, you unleash a swarm of printing bots onto a construction site. They build up the house like bees assembling a hive from their own wax.
Now you might wonder if this could ever be financially viable. A swarm of printing robots? Well, historically, nothing changes technology faster than war. War forces innovation by necessity. Countries are getting really good at making absurd numbers of high quality robots cheaply.
For example, what’s going to happen to all the Ukrainian drone engineers once the war ends? Sure, some will stay in the defense industry, but peacetime defense budgets are always lower than those of a nation facing existential war. Imagine the minds that are currently inventing drones that can fly a hundred miles and autonomously hunt down and kill individual enemy soldiers. Apply minds like that to the construction automation problem, and suddenly a lot of doors open up.
I mean, without commenting on the state ore potential of 3D printing homes, american paper homes would not be the comparison I’d make. The prints are made of concrete, so I’d rather compare it to european housing (I don’t know enough about construction in asian or oceanic regions to compare it to anything there).
3D printer ≠ AI
True, but it’s definitely part of the same drive towards automation and eliminating human workers.
The robots build the physical object; the AI controls the robots.
3D house printing does not eliminate any workers.
Unless they happen to just fall under the nozzle at the wrong time. Then you get a gruesome recreation of stuck in a wall porn.
Not yet, but that’s definitely the goal.
That… is (part of) the joke.
3D Printed Houses Are Already Failing – Megaprojects (Youtube)
Edit: TrackinDaKraken already linked the same video, but mine is better-labeled.
If my print walls looked like that, I’d troubleshoot my printer.
Filament was wet.
To be fair, you probably aren’t using an 0.4*103mm nozzle.
Wow. All by itself with no supervision. Impressive 🙄