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Foam-Spraying Quadcopter Becomes a Flying 3D Printer
Zothecula writes "The swiftlet may not look much different than other little birds, but it has one unique ability – it builds its nest out of its own saliva. Inspired by the swiftlet, scientists at Imperial College London's Aerial Robotics Lab have created a robotic quadcopter that can extrude polyurethane foam while in flight. By targeting where that foam goes, it can build up simple structures, essentially becoming a flying 3D printer."
With this I feel now more than ever that my job isn't nearly as fun as it should be.
ok, so we're now basically calling anything that moves a robot? and anything that deposits any sort of material a 3D printer?
My ass has been 3D printing better stuff that this since the 70s. It does it totally automatically so it's the best robotic 3D printer on the market!
Why do we continue to call all of this shit "3D Printing"? Why not fabrication? And squirting foam from a drone is a long way from a "printer".
If it doesn't put ink on a piece of paper, it's NOT a printer.
I was thinking about emergency shelters in disaster areas.
Seriously, if you could scale these, it would be ideal as you wouldn't have to deal with closed or obstructed even washed away roads. If you used a closed cell foam, they would be buoyant. and the liquid to foam design means you do not have to level or set the grade of the area before installing. Just get the supplies as close as possible, fly in and spray a few domes where people are congregating, then get better relief to them once the paths of ingress are passable. You could likely even make makeshift rafts and canoes if flooding is a potential problem but with all the other debris in the water, it might not be too smart.
Probably better to just use a larger quad-copter, set up an area near the disaster to build your foam huts, and then fly them to the exact location.
No matter how good these things get, it will still be less efficient than a fixed printer, and you still have to move the same weight of materials to the final location. You also still need a nearby staging area to refill the printer, so there is no gain there, either.
It might be a lot more useful at a science fair, or a geek bar.