3D houses “grown” like bones

By Charlie Osborne | November 5, 2012, 2:47 AM PST

Softkill has developed a 3D printing technique for large scale construction which mimics the growth process of bones.
A London-based team of architects and designers at studio Softkill have been researching new methods of generative design for additive manufacturing. In other words, this is the shape 3D printing could eventually take in the future — literally.
A new concept design called Protohome was presented at last week’s 3D Printshow. Taking the more “traditional” method of 3D construction and turning it on its head, the team tested how large-scale 3D printing could be made lighter, more flexible and created without the need for adhesives.
The result? A computer algorithm which transforms printed material into fibrous pieces that can be “grown” and twisted in the same way that human bone builds – reinforcing stress-prone areas to keep breaks to a minimum. This creates a “web” of material rather than solid mass, but does mean the material is permeable. Therefore, waterproof coating is placed inside.
Displaying a 3D printed house at 1.33 scale, each fiber that winds through one continuous cantilevered structure has a 0.7mm radius. A house built at scale would require 31 separate pieces to construct. The team says that the:

“Softkill house moves away from heavy, compression-based 3D printing of on-site buildings, instead proposing lightweight, high resolution, optimised structures which, at life scale, are manageable truck-sized pieces that can be printed off site and later assembled on site.”

Aaron Silver of Softkill Design told Dezeen that 3D printing could result in cheaper builds which require less material to construct. “I think there really is an interesting future for architecture and 3D printing,” he said, “You have great cost savings, material efficiency, things like that, which architects are vastly interested in.”

This research was founded at the Architectural Association School of Architecture’s Design Research Lab, and research prototypes were supported by Materialise.
Image credit: Softkill
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MIT to deliver printable household robots

By Charlie Osborne | April 4, 2012, 5:12 AM PDT

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What if you could go to a store, pick out a design for a robot to help with your household chores — and have it built in a matter of hours?
That is the vision of the team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A five-year, $10 million project to bring advanced robotics to the general public has just begun — and aims to bring together blueprint-based robotic design and machines capable of assisting in daily tasks to the wider economy.
“This research envisions a whole new way of thinking about the design and manufacturing of robots, and could have a profound impact on society,” said Daniela Rus, MIT professor and leader of the project.
“We believe that it has the potential to transform manufacturing and to democratize access to robots.”
The scheme, ‘An Expedition in Computing Printable Programmable Machines‘, is currently in its fledgling stage. Bringing together MIT, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, the $10 million grant to fund the project was received from the National Science Foundation.
The ambitious scheme wants the average person to be able to design, customize, print and assemble a specialized robot in a matter of hours.
Having trouble reaching the top corners of the wardrobe to dust? Print off an insect-type to do the grafting for you.
Designing and manufacturing robots is a lengthy and expensive process, and is therefore generally limited to research or large manufacturers. The MIT’s project will automate the process, and use advanced 3D printing technology to produce functional devices through materials including plastic and paper.
“Our vision is to develop an end-to-end process; specifically, a compiler for building physical machines that starts with a high level of specification of function, and delivers a programmable machine for that function using simple printing processes,” Rus says.
By reducing the development time for robots that could be useful around an average household, the researchers hope to eventually allow an individual to head to a store, select a blueprint from a catalog of robotic designs, and have a fully-functional robot within 24 hours.
This overhaul of robotic design could result in mass-production of robots useful in manufacturing, education, personalized healthcare and potentially disaster relief.
Currently, the team have developed two prototypes for design, print and programming. These are an insect-based 6-legged robot that could be used for exploring a contaminated area (such as your house for gas leaks) and a gripping claw that could be used by people with limited mobility.
Rus envisions this project to become the ‘next level’ app store, and to revolutionize how we view robotics. The two prototypes cost approximately $100 each, and just over an hour to build.

Manufacturing at the click of a mouse: the third industrial revolution commences

By Joe McKendrick | April 23, 2012, 9:28 AM PDT

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Three-dimensional printing has a huge range of potential applications, from customized mass production of medicine, to food, to houses, to machinery. Technologies such as 3D printing are altering the face of manufacturing, making it leaner, cheaper and far more flexible than ever before to produce products. And, in the process, will reverse the offshoring trend.

A new report in The Economist calls the increasing digitization seen in manufacturing with technologies such as 3D printing the dawn of the “Third Industrial Revolution.” One of the most pronounced changes now being seen is a shift away from moving production to regions with low labor costs back to regions where markets reside. “Labor costs are growing less and less important,” The Economist notes: “a $499 first-generation iPad included only about $33 of manufacturing labor, of which the final assembly in China accounted for just $8.”
In fact, the shift to localized production has already been underway — in a new survey of 106 executives at large US-based manufacturing companies, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) finds more than a third, 37 percent, plan to bring back production to the United States from China or are considering it.
BCG cites China’s rising labor costs — the inevitable and ironic result that a rising standard of living enables — as making manufacturing less cost-effective within that country. In the past, the next logical move would have been to relocate plants or contract for production in emerging regions with low labor rates. Interestingly, what’s happening this time around is the United States is seen as the next low-cost production region.

Not mentioned in the BCG release, but an important factor, is the rise of automation and digitization of production processes within US companies, thanks to information technology and lean methodologies. Emerging technologies, particularly 3D printing, also makes production at the source viable and cost-effective, and it’s likely that many companies and innovators will be embracing “desktop manufacturing” as a way to quickly and smartly assemble and mass produce their goods.
As The Economist describes it, 3D printing will change “the geography of supply chains,” since 3D printing can take place anytime, anywhere. Spare parts will no longer have to be ordered from some distant locale, they can be made on the spot. “The days when projects ground to a halt for want of a piece of kit, or when customers complained that they could no longer find spare parts for things they had bought, will one day seem quaint.”
Quaint indeed.
(Photo by the author.)