Rival robots prepping to automate home building

"Your shoes, clothes and car are already made automatically, but your house is built by hand and it doesn't make sense." That's word from Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, whose team at USC is getting ready to debut a $1.5 million robot designed to build homes with zero help from puny humans. The bot should have its first test run in California this April, where it will build the shell of a two-story house in 24 hours. The operation is akin to a 3D inkjet printer, with the robot moving about in three dimensional space, spraying out the home layer by layer. Part of the simplicity of the process comes from the simplicity of the materials: nearly the whole house is built with concrete and gypsum, obviously leaving a bit of work for the decorators, but allowing for complicated shapes and cheap construction -- about a fifth of current costs. A rival robotic house building being developed at Loughborough University takes a week to build a home, but will include fancier designs, including ducts for water, electrical and ventilation. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait around 5 years for that model to hit the market, and by then we'll all be having so much fun driving around in our flying cars we won't even have time to bother with these "home" things.

[Via Slashdot]

[Tarry @ Aug 11th 2008 2:16AM]

This is great news!

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[Tarry @ Aug 11th 2008 2:16AM]

This is great news!

http://www.chasetheglow.com

[Kelly Foster @ Oct 31st 2009 3:03PM]

Definitely a sign of the times!


Kelly Foster President & CEO
http://extenonline.com/

[Brent @ Jan 15th 2007 3:55PM]

I hear the robot is free after rebates, but the concrete and gypsum cartridges are really expensive.

[Kevin @ Jan 15th 2007 4:57PM]

LOL!

[noel @ Jan 15th 2007 11:35PM]

ROFL!

[zonamanoz @ Jan 15th 2007 3:58PM]

Holy Crap! I'm doing a thesis on this very subject for my Architecture course! Robots FTW!

[zonamanoz @ Jan 15th 2007 4:26PM]

Holy Crap! I'm doing a thesis on this very subject for my Architecture course! Robots FTW!

[Leo @ Jan 15th 2007 5:38PM]

while this is cool, it isnt so impressive. building a home almost completely out of concrete is impractical. still it is a step in the right direction i think.

what i dont understand is why we havent seen automated port terminals. i just got back from hong kong and its really quite facinating to see all of those container ships. considering how much unions cost the logistics industry, i think its an area ripe for more R&D.

holla

[netposer @ Jan 15th 2007 4:10PM]

Notice the word "Shell". So it just slaps together some pre-built panels. Humans WILL have to go in and do everything else.

[Simon @ Jan 15th 2007 4:21PM]

netposer, read, think, then comment, please ... it doesn't use panels. it builds the house in layers. and of course it will need humans to finish the task. especially since the layer structure will have its limits.

anyway, I think this is pretty cool. though, I don't think I'll ever get that common. I imagine getting the robot to where you want your house build will be the most difficult part ...

[zonamanoz @ Jan 15th 2007 5:59PM]

If they find away of compacting them then they can easily transport them. Perhaps unfold using the same princples as the self lifting crane. GPS could probably do the rest.

[Kris Clark @ Jan 15th 2007 4:35PM]

I'm pretty sure this was exactly what a Captain Planet episode predicted.

Those USC people should reallywatch out for Ma-Ti with the Heart ring because I'm pretty sure he called on the monkeys and dolphins to take down the evil mass home capitalists.

[CT @ Jan 15th 2007 4:36PM]

I, for one, welcome our shelter creating overlords.

[Wolfjax @ Jan 15th 2007 6:10PM]

I don't think this country will ever see automated ports because of the union. automation would get rid of to many jobs. And would be to efficient to support union jobs.

[Ben Condie @ Jan 15th 2007 10:33PM]

There is such a thing. Port of Brisbane in QLD, Australia is well on it's way to having an automated terminal.

http://www.patrick.com.au/IRM/Content/technology/autostrad.html

We also have one of the most heavily unionised waterfront industries. It sure did cause a stir!

[Greg @ Jan 15th 2007 4:50PM]

the best part is with my job, i watch houses get demolished, prepped, built, furnished, and ready to live in less than 6 days

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

[tim @ Jan 15th 2007 5:21PM]

So, how do you fit a robot in a 20 ft wide row house lot in Brooklyn? This will only work if the robot builds from inside the structure.

[Murc @ Jan 15th 2007 9:28PM]

Tim - Its not for that. This is for the house building in the suberbs, and country...Although I'm sure the biggest use would be for disaster area's....instead of waiting months for FEMA trailers...they could just build the people small houses...which would be far better then a hotel on wheel.

[Tobe @ Jan 15th 2007 11:46PM]

I'm not sure who mentioned 3rd world countries, and this being a solution... but i'd like to differ. I'm (originally) from a '3rd world country' and I studied architecture (both there and in the West) and I'm really impressed with this idea (being a gadget-head and all). The trouble is, it solves a non-existent problem from a 3rd world perspective: man-power. We got lots man... lots.. The real miracle would be building with recycled materials (read junk) and have it look respectable. In 3rd world countries, you'd be amazed the importance of having a house that doesnt look like cheap.

[Ry @ Jan 15th 2007 5:44PM]

I for one would like to offer my services to our robot overlords in the decorating of the aforementioned houses. I can use a paint brush and have some plumbing skills. I'd prefer that than be used as the fuel for the machine when the robots take over the world.

[T-Will @ Jan 15th 2007 6:01PM]

Images of iRobot (the movie) come to mind, the destructorbot (or whatever it was called) that almost kills Will Smith, except these would be like the destructorbot's nemesis. I wonder what would happen if you set a destructorbot and constructorbot next to each other...would they fight to the death?

[al sing @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:28AM]

go to spp.gov a goverment web site and you will find that soon all import and export in the U.S. will be comming from central america, then trucked up through mexico. (all non union) the unions havn't a clue whats about to happen. Why do you think their building a super highway from central America to canada.

[Lukar @ Jan 15th 2007 6:58PM]

They will set this robots up in some highway as Home vending machines. :D You'll have to rent the home transportation guys though.

[Pageus @ Jan 15th 2007 7:51PM]

While this is a nice idea and all.. why not put it where it needs to be.. like habitat for humanity.

on the flip side.. it would wipe out my side career of framing and roofing when i don't have a programming job once that is taken away from me by the AI's that feel we can no longer tell them what to do in an organized fashion.

or wait.. will we have the same problems we have with vehicle theft that we do, with most of these robots ending up in mexico building homes for govmt officials??

nah.. but i do like the habitat for humanity idea.. i bet you could get more support out of it from the local unions that don't want to dirty their hands with something they can't make money on.

[Pageus @ Jan 15th 2007 7:55PM]

or wait.. maybe it can create the next presidential housing area.. hooverville.. turns bushville

[jayco614 @ Jan 16th 2007 3:49PM]

When contacted for a comment, illegal immigrants were unavailable.

[Bathsheba @ Jan 16th 2007 5:15PM]

Of course, if the house is constructed as a unitary blob of gypsum, remodeling's going to be quite the bitch.

[Thomas @ Jan 18th 2007 7:17PM]

What will be really funny is watching one of these trying to work in wind or rain. Good bye house. And those of us that want to actually wire our homes for sound or security? Have fun with that!

[mark @ Jan 18th 2007 12:21PM]

How would they get the rebar in there? Don't US building codes require some kind of reinforcement for housing and the like?

[woodcermet @ Mar 6th 2008 10:10PM]

Doesn't seem impractical at all when you stop to think of adobe houses built of coated earth.

A further method involved a monolithic approach using rammed earth. Mix sand and clay with some water and build up a wall between board supports. The thick walls helped maintain moderate temps without the day to night magnitude of temp fluctuations.

This method of building up by layers seems a bit like a new modeling method where a new layer of material is added followed by a laser to fuse where the solid will be. Once the pattern is finished, turn it over and shake out the loose material. similar in concept, but it does seem to permit something other than flat walls.

[Jaime Soto Figueroa @ Feb 12th 2007 9:08AM]

I wonder why Legoland does not venture to the real world producing big Lego Bricks.

For example they could produce a “binary” line of bricks that would allow to build any “digitalized” architectural shape, for example if A is a distance unit, say 10 cms or 4” etc etc, then the bricks could have the following dimensions:

A x (1 x 1 x 1)
A x (2 x 1 x 1)
A x (2 x 2 x 1)
A x (4 x 1 x 1)
.
.
.
A x ( 2^N x 2^M x 21)

Where N and M are Integers. Then a computer could calculate and order to Legoland the exact the bill of materials departing from Autocad, Inventor, etc etc. provided the bricks have holes to introduce the seismic iron skeleton before extruding the final cement.

Jaime Soto
Chile

[walter feuchs @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:35PM]

In 1987, the assembly of Energy Star rated building envelope panels for a "World House" in 30 minutes by largely students was ahead of its time. Before Sept. 2007 a similiar event is planned in NYC, but this time the "house will pay for itself" in energy savings,and beyond. The original concept for this development stems fron Frank Lloyd Wright, 71 years ago!

[suchi @ Mar 6th 2007 1:49AM]

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HomeBuilding

[jay @ Jul 10th 2007 10:23PM]

well, i should say that there's nothing wrong with robots building the house since there is a surmountable amount of time being saved here. like the painting part, a human would take days or a week to accomplish this. however on the structure part, i should say it has to be architecturally planned well by humans cause the strength of the house is the main concern here. So, time and speed wise then robots would be great to help humans in building homes then. http://www.startingyourownonlinebusiness.com/board-and-batten.html