Researchers in Switzerland and the UK have developed flying 3D printing robots that can build structures on the wing as bees and wasps do.
They say the technology could be used to erect or repair buildings in difficult areas like disaster zones or the upper reaches of skyscrapers.
The drones cooperate to deposit layers of material guided by a digital design, adapting their movements as they go.
They are fully autonomous while flying, but are monitored by a human controller.
“We’ve proved that drones can work autonomously and in tandem to construct and repair buildings, at least in the lab,” said research leader Professor Mirko Kovac. “Our solution is scalable and could help us to construct and repair buildings in difficult-to-reach areas in the future.”
Building and scanning drones
The fleet consists of ‘BuilDrones’, which deposit materials during flight. Quality-controlling ‘ScanDrones’ then measure their output and help control them.
Throughout the build, the drones assess the printed geometry and adapt their behaviour to meet the specifications to within 5mm.
Researchers had the fleet build a 2m-high cylinder made up of 72 layers of a polyurethane-based foam. And an 18cm cylinder composed 28 layers of a bespoke cementitious material.
The team is drawn from Imperial College London and Empa, the Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technologym based in Dübendorf, near Zürich.
Co-investigators include Robert Stuart-Smith, Stefan Leutenegger, Vijay Pawar, Richard Ball, Chris Williams and Paul Shepherd, and their research teams at University College London, the University of Bath, the University of Pennsylvania, Queen Mary University of London, and the Technical University of Münich).
The project is supported by Skanska, Buro Happold, and the BRE.
This story first appeared on Global Construction Review.
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