13 hours to build a house!

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a robot that printed the basic structure of a building from improvised materials. In the near future, such machines will be able to create even tall buildings.

These robots will be of particular assistance in the process of colonization of other planets. With the help of buildings printing technology, they will be able to prepare the infrastructure of an unfamiliar environment for the arrival of the crew from Earth.

Currently, the development of the robot continues. Nevertheless, its first results are already notable: the height of the constructed house is 3.7 m and the diameter is 14.6 m. The duration of such construction is 13 hours. By the way, the robot printed a dome of foam. In case of a real house construction, the robot would build a dome of concrete.

The structure of the robot consists of a large robotic arm. Its movement is provided by a crawler-transporter. At first, it could work only on a diesel fuel, but later solar panels were added. Also, it is possible to connect necessary engineering components: welding machine, foam gun and so on.

The peculiarity of this robot is in its ability to search for construction materials right at the construction site. For example, sand, ice or hay. Thanks to this feature, the machine is meant to be used for construction on other planets.