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Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

ethz.ch

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Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#21

Post by mauvehaus »

beachy wrote: post #8

This seems like game changing technology. There are a heap of such walls around here, some built long ago by Dalmation immigrants (and some allegedly by German POWs). It's quite labour intensive and highly skilled to create them. We have some on our property, used to retain the hillside after land slips. They were built with an excavator by a gnarly old guy who was unbelievably skilled. One thing I wonder is whether…

Visiting Scotland, I was told that the apparent lack of stability is what keeps the sheep from pushing against the dry stone walls there.

Apocryphal or true? No idea. It's intriguing to think that sheep have a sense for stable construction, and that people have learned to deceive it.

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#22

Post by HPsquared »

ExMachina73 wrote: post #20

Perhaps in hundreds of years they'll be able to deploy AI robots to poorer regions of the world to build basic utilities, mine resources, and even whole cities from nothing. Or have them depoloyed to current cities constantly repairing and optimizing infrastructure.

Factorio style.

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#24

Post by gerdesj »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #9
beachy wrote: post #8

This seems like game changing technology. There are a heap of such walls around here, some built long ago by Dalmation immigrants (and some allegedly by German POWs). It's quite labour intensive and highly skilled to create them. We have some on our property, used to retain the hillside after land slips. They were built with an excavator by a gnarly old guy who was unbelievably skilled. One thing I wonder is whether…

You could potentially shotcrete (spray it with concrete to reinforce) the wall after the robotic excavator is done if you’re concerned about stability. I can’t speak to whether you can highly automate this as well, but it seems possible with current state robotics with human operators. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotcrete https://www.geostabilization.com/technology/shotcrete-robot/ https://dawinvehicles.en.made-in…

"You could potentially shotcrete"

You could stop water draining through the retaining wall and turn it into a dam, which will not end well.

My back garden/yard has a 40m drop to a lawn. The levels are managed by dry stone walls. Soil here is heavy clay with really heavy clay sub soil, so efficient drainage is imperative.

As well as drystone walls, consider gabions which can form phenomenally tough retaining walls. You can plant on them too rather than having to weed drystone walls. Gabions are much more resistant to plants forcing joints apart than drystone walls.

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#25

Post by fernly »

ETH Zurich[1, 2] is fairly famous as an engineering school. Somehow in my mind it is linked with computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra[3], but according to the Wiki he was never based there.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETH_Zurich [2] https://ethz.ch/en.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#26

Post by toomuchtodo »

gerdesj wrote: post #24
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could potentially shotcrete (spray it with concrete to reinforce) the wall after the robotic excavator is done if you’re concerned about stability. I can’t speak to whether you can highly automate this as well, but it seems possible with current state robotics with human operators. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotcrete https://www.geostabilization.com/technology/shotcrete-robot/ https://dawinvehicles.en.made-in…

"You could potentially shotcrete" You could stop water draining through the retaining wall and turn it into a dam, which will not end well. My back garden/yard has a 40m drop to a lawn. The levels are managed by dry stone walls. Soil here is heavy clay with really heavy clay sub soil, so efficient drainage is imperative. As well as drystone walls, consider gabions which can form phenomenally tough retaining walls. Yo…

You would still need humans to erect the gabions though, no? Trying to understand the best optimization use case for this product and best fit final results. Please excuse my knowledge gaps! I’m am trying to fill those gaps.

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#27

Post by hollerith »

fernly wrote: post #25

ETH Zurich[1, 2] is fairly famous as an engineering school. Somehow in my mind it is linked with computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra[3], but according to the Wiki he was never based there. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETH_Zurich [2] https://ethz.ch/en.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra

Dijkstra was close to Niklaus Wirth, who was based there.

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#29

Post by dventimi »

seabrookmx wrote: post #17
toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could potentially shotcrete (spray it with concrete to reinforce) the wall after the robotic excavator is done if you’re concerned about stability. I can’t speak to whether you can highly automate this as well, but it seems possible with current state robotics with human operators. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotcrete https://www.geostabilization.com/technology/shotcrete-robot/ https://dawinvehicles.en.made-in…

This defeats the purpose a little bit though because the environmental benefit is to _not_ use concrete, as producing it has very high CO2 output. They use shotcrete a lot here in BC where cliffs are close to the road, but usually when it's soil or more loose material. Any rock structures (natural or man made) are typically left bare.

Perhaps concrete in construction and demolition waste could be used.

https://www.bigrentz.com/blog/construction-waste-statistics

Re: Autonomous excavator constructs a six-metre-high dry-stone wall

#30

Post by dublinben »

ExMachina73 wrote: post #20

Perhaps in hundreds of years they'll be able to deploy AI robots to poorer regions of the world to build basic utilities, mine resources, and even whole cities from nothing. Or have them depoloyed to current cities constantly repairing and optimizing infrastructure.

If there's one thing that lower income countries have an excess of, it's people to perform labor. There's a reason why you don't see countries (e.g. China) introducing more automation until they rise to a certain income level.
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