Charlotte, a spider-like robot, can 3D print a home in a day using recycled waste materials and may one day build moon bases.
With the supply and demand of housing fluctuating like the tides, construction projects can be nightmarishly complex and unpredictable.
Luckily, along came a spider to spin a solution. Actually, to 3D print a solution.
Touted as 100 times more efficient than construction workers, the lovingly-named Charlotte is capable of building a 200 sq m home in just a day.
Charlotte is a combined effort between Australian startups Crest Robotics and 3D printing company Earthbuilt Technology.
How Charlotte works
There’s a compressed waste material system at play here, using sand, crushed glass, and brick.
The 3D printing process subsequently smoothly deposits the material layer by layer. Think of it as a giant, highly mobile device used to maximize the efficiency of the building process.
The clincher appears to be the spider-like legs for increased mobility and agility. It might be the first time you’ve heard an arachnid analogized with technology, but movement, printing, and elevation can be seamlessly utilized.
While commercial deployment isn’t light years away by any stretch, the joint venture is still operable as a prototype, as it just made its debut at a public exhibition.
Arachnitect of the future
Living in a city where construction projects seem to take an age, the future would look extremely promising if robots like Charlotte become the norm.
It’s not just the briskness that's impressive, but the green factor too. Reusing waste materials is a brilliant incentive, especially if they can be used in 3D printing.
Resilience is bolstered, too, in that fire and floodproof structures might be high on the agenda, especially as Charlotte specializes in building these.
The sky’s the limit for Charlotte, as the robot’s spry manoeuvrability would even allow it to operate on moon terrain.
As certain countries (like South Korea, for example) plan moon bases in the future, it needn’t be a leap of the imagination to envisage a spider-bot being established in space.
However, down here on Earth, a full-scale Charlotte is still a few years away from building its first full-scale home, as structural differences across countries affect the rollout.
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