FYI,

This has obvious implications to space architecture, that will
necessarily rely heavily on robotic construction.

"Robo-builder Threatens the Brickie"
London Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2546574,00.html

: Engineers are racing to unveil the world's first robot capable of
: building a house at the touch of a button.

: The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-storey house
: built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be
: erected in California before April.

: A rival design, being pioneered in the East Midlands, with £1.2m of
: government funding, will include sunken baths, fireplaces and
: cornices. There are even plans for robots to supplant painters and
: decorators by spraying colourful frescoes at an affordable price.

: By building almost an entire house from just two materials
: — concrete and gypsum — the robots will eliminate the need for
: dozens of traditional components, including floorboards, wooden
: window frames and possibly even wallpaper. It may eventually be
: possible to use specially treated gypsum instead of glass window
: panes.

: Engineers on both projects say the robots will not only cut costs
: and avoid human delays but liberate the normal family homes from
: the conventional designs of pitched roofs, right-angled walls and
: rectangular windows.

: "The architectural options will explode," predicted Dr Behrokh
: Khoshnevis at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles,
: who will soon unleash his $1.5m (£940,000) robot. "We will be able
: to build curves and domes as easily as straight walls.

: "Your shoes, clothes and car are already made automatically, but
: your house is built by hand and it doesn't make sense."

: At Loughborough University's School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
: Engineering, the technology is being backed by a £1.2m grant from
: the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

: It involves computer-controlled robotic nozzles which pipe quick-
: drying liquid gypsum and concrete to form walls, floors and roofs.

: Inspired by the inkjet printer, the technology goes far beyond the
: techniques already used for prefabricated homes. "This will remove
: all the limitations of traditional building," said Hugh Whitehead
: of the architecture firm Foster & Partners, which designed
: the "Gherkin" skyscraper in London and is producing designs for the
: Loughborough team. "Anything you can dream you can build."

: The robots are rigged to a metal frame, enabling them to shuttle in
: three dimensions and assemble the structure of the house layer by
: layer. The sole foreman on site operates a computer programmed with
: the designer's plans.

: The researchers in Los Angeles claim their robot will be able to
: build the shell of a house in 24 hours. "Compared to a conventional
: house, the speed of construction will be increased 200-fold and the
: building costs will be reduced to a fifth of what they are today,"
: said Khoshnevis.

: The rival British system is likely to take at least a week but will
: include more sophisticated design features, with the computer's
: nozzle weaving in ducts for water pipes, electrical wiring and
: ventilation within the panels of gypsum or concrete.

: Jala El-Ali, structural designer at Buro Happold — the firm that
: helped design Arsenal's new football stadium, which is shaped like
: a flying saucer — said future homes could carry features borrowed
: from ant hills, honeycombs or sea shells.

: Dr Rupert Soar, in charge of the project at Loughborough, has
: travelled to Namibia to seek inspiration from termites, which
: construct giant mounds by regurgitating earth in intricate designs.

: "If you ask a bricklayer to lay bricks in anything other than a
: straight line, you'll run into problems," said Soar. "But if you
: ask the robot to make a squiggly line it really doesn't care."

: While the Americans' first robot-built home is predicting a
: completion date of April, the Loughborough prototype is unlikely to
: be built for at least five years.

Mark Reiff