Behrokh Khoshnevis — contour crafting: automated construction
August 4, 2012
The next humans to lose their jobs may well be construction workers, says The Atlantic.
Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California, has spent the last 15 years working on a machine that will “print” buildings. He calls the practice Contour Crafting.
The technology, he says, will be faster than all conventional building methods (including prefab construction), cheaper, and use less energy. It can build whatever you can program into a computer, so it will offer unprecedented design flexibility — right angles, wild patterns, or soft curves.
“Contour Crafting will most probably be one of the very few feasible approaches for building structures on other planets, such as the Moon and Mars, which are being targeted for human colonization before the end of the new century,” says Professor Khoshnevis.
Video Source: TED
Related:
Prototype of the Day: A Printer That Can Build a House in 20 Hours
Contour Crafting
USC Viterbi
Comments (3)
by MC Angelilli
I just don’t understand why this concept can’t get funding.
by Jho
This is great, I hope it will be available soon.
Although I live so far up north, that we would first need a robot that digs a hole for the house. It always looks weird to me seeing houses being built straight on the ground. We have to start our houses at least 1,5 meters below the ground here. Also, is the robot able to consider how water is going to flow around the house etc. so that it doesn’t get moldy in a few years?
Anyways, I’m sure this will be far better than building by hand in a few years. Can’t wait!
by Sebastian Lundh
Do we know when these machines will be commercially available?
Anyway, this is amazing! Imagine how much cheaper houses will be, and imagine how many fewer accidents at work we will have! Fewer people will hurt their backs lifting things; fewer people will fall down of heights etcetera.