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Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

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Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#41

Post by jerf »

brudgers wrote: post #19
RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason you can't combine these approaches. Using larger ground-based equipment to move girders and small, flying machines to do things like interior finishing makes a lot of sense.

A 4x8 sheet of 1/2" Gypsum board weighs nearly 60 pounds. A five gallon bucket of paint weighs about the same. A quadrotor couldn't finish an office because it would be too large to fit through the door...never mind the rotating blades.

You're right. But. As robotics becomes practical for building, we will not just replace human with robots. We will change how we build to make it easier to build with robots.

For instance, I was noticing that while you might not want to use magnets for everything in your building, you could use them as a guide during that intermediate period where the robot can't just put things together, but they can be mostly correct. Magnets could be used to do things like guide pieces of wood together with a sheath containing powerful magnets, then the wood can screwed together, then the sheaths recovered and used again on some other bits of wood.

Everything about building a house may change; for instance, a few years ago there were some news stories about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhryxVAsa4&eurl%20= only scaled up to human residence sizes, which is obviously not that tricky. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NSX/is_7_49/ai_n6149... Cheap robot labor changes what the cheapest houses are.

The biggest challenge may very well be keeping codes up to date. I suspect that the crossover may very well be swift when it happens; robots are improving very rapidly and when they cross the line where they are a more cost-effective way to build a house, they aren't going to sort of edge up to it and pull alongside it, they're going to blow right past it and keep going.

Times are tough now but the next several decades still stand to be very interesting times, in all senses of the phrase.

(Oh, and personally I don't think flying robots have much future in construction. The economics are nonsense, excepting cargo helicopters, which are regularly used for some purposes today. I'm more speaking in general.)

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#42

Post by eftpotrm »

philwelch wrote: post #40
eftpotrm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you'd rather have a helicopter next door while you slept?

If it was next to my apartment building I'd want the drones to work during the day and if it was next to my office I'd want the drones to work at night. Most homes are not right next to office buildings. I wouldn't mind if the drones were a couple blocks away though.

I live next to a small industrial estate, my employers's campus location has houses the other side of the road and behind some trees from memory. Offices often have bars and restaurants around them which do good trade in the evening, sometimes city centre apartments mixed in too. I certainly follow the principle but I think there's less urban clear 'this time is OK' areas than you might think, low enough to further penalise this against traditional construction techniques.

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#44

Post by mitko »

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #9
mitko wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you say makes sense - robotic cranes should be able to operate with heavier pieces, and will require less energy per piece placement. However, MAVs (micro air vehicles) could reach into places where cranes wouldn't be able - i.e. inside the building. Also you can have many more MAVs working at the same time than cranes, so MAVs might be able to considerably speed up the building process.

There's no reason you can't combine these approaches. Using larger ground-based equipment to move girders and small, flying machines to do things like interior finishing makes a lot of sense.

I absolutely agree with you - one should use the right tool(robot) for the right task.

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#45

Post by d5tryr »

I've been cleaning up after a flood disaster for the past few days, the most amazing technology i've seen in that time is the bobcats and their drivers. It takes 10-15 people a few hours to empty a house of all it's waterlogged belongings on to the street, and then 15 minutes for the bobcat to get it up on the back of a truck.  When I see a tech demo like this I'm very optimistic about it's potential for disaster relief, where simple structures, shelters, and platforms would be of great benefit.

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#46

Post by scott_s »

andrewcooke wrote: post #37

I'm going to be a pedant here - that does not look like a swarm, and they don't claim it is (in the video, at least). By "swarm" I would understand that all have the same programming and that the assembly process is emergent from simpler instructions plus exploration and feedback. Instead they appear to be programmed to act sequentially with a pre-planned set of actions. There is no feedback, no emergence. In short,…

No smarts? From their behavior, I got the impression that the robots were assessing what was the next step in construction, which included assessing if another robot was still working on construction. They also had to avoid collisions.

Anything programmed by humans is a "dumb machine doing exactly what they are told." I think you meant that to mean each individual step was hardcoded. I don't think it was. I think they were all following the same algorithm. The group certainly spends a lot of time on path planning: http://repository.upenn.edu/grasp_papers/

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#48

Post by stcredzero »

brudgers wrote: post #3

Interesting, but robotic cranes on the ground would seem to be more efficient and reliable in ordinary circumstances. It's not a question of how to grip it, It's a simple question of weight ratios.

I could see potential in this to disrupt industries like roofing, skyscraper cleaning, and line maintenance.

Re: Watch a swarm of flying robotic drones construct a tiny building

#49

Post by andrewcooke »

scott_s wrote: post #46
andrewcooke wrote: post #37

I'm going to be a pedant here - that does not look like a swarm, and they don't claim it is (in the video, at least). By "swarm" I would understand that all have the same programming and that the assembly process is emergent from simpler instructions plus exploration and feedback. Instead they appear to be programmed to act sequentially with a pre-planned set of actions. There is no feedback, no emergence. In short,…

No smarts? From their behavior, I got the impression that the robots were assessing what was the next step in construction, which included assessing if another robot was still working on construction. They also had to avoid collisions. Anything programmed by humans is a "dumb machine doing exactly what they are told." I think you meant that to mean each individual step was hardcoded. I don't think it was. I think the…

Actually, you may be more right than you know (sorry). I've found this quote: "We tell the quadrotors what structure to build and they figure out the assembly plan and then build it." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W18Z3UnnS_0&feature=play...

It still doesn't look very swarm-like to me (more like some kind of planner algorithm; I know the quote implies a distributed intelligence, but look at the way they queue always in exactly the same place, do laps, etc etc), but that certainly sounds more promising.

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