Archinect - News

AI designer and multi-story 3D printer among ICON technologies unveiled at SXSW

2024-03-12T16:00:00-04:00

Construction technologies company ICON has unveiled a suite of new technologies at SXSW, including a multi-story robotic construction system and an AI-powered design system.

At a SXSW event dubbed ‘Domus Ex Machina,’ the company also presented a new low-carbon building material for 3D printing alongside a digital catalog for residential 3D printed architecture containing more than 60 designs.

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

“In the future, I believe nearly all construction will be done by robots, and nearly all construction-related information will be processed and managed by AI systems,” said Jason Ballard, ICON Co-Founder and CEO, announcing the new systems. “It is clear to me that this is the way to cut the cost and time of construction in half while making homes that are twice as good and more faithfully express the values and hopes of the people who live in them.”

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

Among the new technologies unveiled is Phoenix, ICON...

NASA tests autonomous construction robots for future use in outer space

2024-02-06T11:09:00-05:00

NASA has unveiled details of a robotic system designed to construct and maintain structural components in space. The system, developed by NASA’s Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) team, consists of inchworm-like robots that may one day assemble, repair, and reconfigure structural materials in orbit, on the lunar surface, or on other planets, before humans arrive.

A Scaling Omnidirectional Lattice Locomoting Explorer (SOLL-E) builder robot carries a small building block called a voxel – short for volumetric pixel – as it maneuvers, stepping inchworm-style, along the exterior of a mechanical metamaterial structure. Image credit: NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA’s system revolves around a set of 3D building blocks called voxels, which resemble a wire-frame soccer ball. Made of strong, lightweight composite materials, the voxels combine to create a system that, according to NASA, is comparable to current high-performance structures such as bridges, aircraf...

University of Illinois launches center for autonomous construction research

2023-08-23T11:26:00-04:00

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering has announced the creation of a research and development center dedicated to autonomous construction technologies. The initiative, funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, will engage with research on self-driving construction vehicles and their integration into modern construction practices.

The Center for Autonomous Construction in Manufacturing at Scale (CACMS) will delve into prominent challenges in autonomous construction, including control systems, artificial intelligence applications, system architecture, and advanced manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing. Vehicles ranging from traditional wheeled vehicles to tracked units will also undergo testing and development at the center, which will also hold a fleet of self-driving cars.

Within these fields, CACMS's primary mission ...

Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot equipped with ChatGPT to allow conversations with human companions

2023-05-04T11:39:00-04:00

Florida-based AI solutions company Levatas has equipped Boston Dynamics’ famous robot dog Spot with ChatGPT and Google’s Text-to-Speech model, allowing the robot to answer questions about past and future missions. Humans can talk to the adapted Spot model using normal language commands, with Spot able to instantly parse high volumes of information and use insights from the data to answer questions.

“These robots run automated missions every day,” tweeted machine learning engineer Santiago Valdarrama, who worked on the project. “Each mission uses miles-long, hard-to-understand configuration files. Only technical people can handle them. At the end of each mission, the robots capture a ton of data. There's no simple way to query all of it on demand. That's where ChatGPT comes in. We show it the configuration files and the mission results. We then ask questions using that context. Put that together with a voice-enabled interface, and we have an awesome way to query our data!”

We integr...

New 3D printing housing factory aims to cut construction time by 50 percent

2023-03-28T12:51:00-04:00

3D printing construction technology startup Mighty Buildings has offered a first look inside their new factory in Monterrey, Mexico. As part of the company’s mission to develop and construct “climate-resilient, carbon-neutral homes near points of need,” the factory is reportedly capable of producing the components for an entire home during each day of operation.

Image credit: Mighty Buildings

The factory will produce homes using a blend of material science, robotics, and automation. Components for the homes will be 3D printed using Mighty Buildings’ concrete-free composite stone material, which is 30% lighter and 15% less expensive, and five times stronger than concrete. The company also claims their homes will be climate-resilient, carbon-neutral, and resistant to severe weather conditions, including hurricanes and earthquakes.

Image credit: Mighty Buildings

The components printed in the factory will form part of the company’s existing Mighty Kit System for prefabricated housing and ...

Florida International University to develop virtual reality games for training future AEC workers thanks to NSF grant

2023-03-27T12:06:00-04:00

Florida International University (FIU) has been awarded a grant to develop games that can train individuals for roles in architecture, engineering, and construction. The funding, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will support FIU’s exploration into how institutions can train skilled workers at a time when robotics and autonomous systems are increasingly being deployed in the AEC sector.

As part of the project, faculty from the institution’s School of Architecture and School of Computing and Information Services will work together to develop a platform that will use virtual reality games to train workers through a personalized learning program. The learning tool is expected to focus on operational industrial robots, with learning delivery tailored for "differences in ability, experience, and sociocultural backgrounds."

The tool will see users asked to explain their decisions ...

Autonomous construction robot IronBOT launched to reduce rebar installation times

2023-03-23T13:13:00-04:00

Pennsylvania-based Advanced Construction Robotics (ACR) has unveiled its latest robot designed to handle rebar on construction sites. Named IronBOT, the system can lift, carry, and place up to 5,000-lb bundles of horizontal and longitudinal rebar.

According to ACR, the robotic system requires no pre-programming, pre-mapping, calibration, or BIM input, and instead automates rebar placement based on the user’s spacing requirements. The company also claims the system can be mobilized on a construction site within 4 to 8 hours and can operate day or night.

IronBOT’s release comes six years after Advanced Construction Robotics released TyBOT, an autonomous system that can tie together steel reinforcement bars. According to the company, a construction site that uses both IronBOT and TyBOT can reduce rebar installation times by 50%.

“We are confident the combination of TyBOT and IronBOT generates a disruptive technology, meaning the time and cost savings are so significant on a job that i...

Robotics company unveils world’s first autonomous system for installing solar farm foundations

2023-03-17T08:30:00-04:00

San Francisco-based Built Robotics has announced the development of the “world’s first fully autonomous solar piling system.” The system, named RPD 35, is capable of constructing foundations for solar panel arrays up to five times faster than the traditional method.

The system was designed for integration into utility-scale solar projects, which require the support of steel H-beams measuring 12-16 feet in length. A typical solar farm requires tens of thousands of piles to be installed, each of which is driven approximately eight feet into the ground and positioned at an accuracy of less than an inch.

According to its creators, RPD 35 uses AI to conduct all steps in the piling process, including surveying, pile distribution, pile driving, and inspection. As a result, the system can enable a two-person crew to install over 300 piles per day.

"Solar piling is a tough, repetitive job, one well suited to automation," explained the company’s CEO and founder Noah Ready-Campbell. "Our pili...

IAAC/WASP team creates ‘solid and expressive’ 3D printed wall made from earth

2023-02-13T13:17:00-05:00

Barcelona’s IAAC has collaborated with Italian 3D printing company WASP on the creation of a 3D printed earthen wall. The element was printed from a mixture of clay and rice fibers, with interlocking timber beams providing support for stair and floor structures.

The 15.7-inch-thick wall was printed in 40 hours using 70 cubic feet of material. Printed in horizontal layers with voids left for the placement of cantilevering timber elements, the team describes their method as one that can “confer both solidity and aesthetic expressivity.”

The prototype was printed using WASP’s modular 3D printing system titled ‘Crane WASP.’ The machinery is composed of a main printer unit that covers an area of 538 square feet by way of a radial mechanical arm, similar to the operation of a traditional construction crane. The Crane WASP system has also been used to deliver the Mario Cucinella-designed TECLA raw earth home which we reported on in 2021.

Image credit: IAAC / WASP

“This work can be consider...

Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas lends a hand on the construction site

2023-01-19T11:49:00-05:00

Boston Dynamics has released a new video showcasing the capabilities of their humanoid robot Atlas. The one-minute-long YouTube video is set within a mock-up construction site, with Atlas seen assisting a human construction worker on scaffolding.

Playfully titled ‘Atlas Gets a Grip,’ the video shows Atlas moving a timber plank around the mock-up site before picking up a tool bag to toss up to a construction worker on an elevated single-story scaffolding platform. As with past Boston Dynamic videos, Atlas ends the sequence in style by performing a backflip off a wooden crate.

Video via Boston Dynamics on YouTube

Entertainment value aside, the video offers an insight into the evolving capabilities of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot and its ability to manipulate the world around it. By interacting with objects and modifying its surroundings in pursuit of a defined goal, the company seeks to demonstrate the evolving ability of robots to assist in heavy-duty human tasks, including compl...

NASA and AI SpaceFactory’s vaulted lunar outpost will be 3D printed by autonomous robots

2022-07-01T12:09:00-04:00

AI SpaceFactory and the NASA Kennedy Space Center have unveiled the design of LINA, a 3D printed structure intended to become a lunar outpost. Designed to be constructed by autonomous robots on the Moon's south pole, the scheme is defined by Romanesque arches that can withstand high compressive loads with minimal material.

Video via AI SpaceFactory on YouTube

LINA’s structural concept will be 3D printed using an Earth-sourced polymer and lunar regolith. Unlike conventional 3D printing where layers are added parallel to the ground, LINA will be 3D printed at a 60-degree angle to allow construction of the vaulted roof. The arches will be topped with 2.7 meters (8.8 feet) of lunar regolith to provide protection from radiation, micrometeorites, lunar seismic activity, and extreme thermal swings.

Image via AI SpaceFactory

The outpost’s location near the rim of the Shackleton crater on the lunar south pole offers near-continuous sunlight on the crater’s peaks, which the team will exploit...

MIT Media Lab designs and tests modular tiles for self-assembling space architecture

2022-05-16T11:50:00-04:00

The MIT Media Lab has shared insights into their pioneering project to build habitats in outer space. Named TESSERAE, the project seeks to create a highly-engineered tile which can be used as a building block for self-assembling, adaptive, reconfigurable structures.

Artist's render of TESSERAE spaceship. Credit: MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative (Artist's Render courtesy of Igor Neminov)

Rather than the traditional method of transporting fixed, rigid habitation modules into outer space, creating structures such as the International Space Station, the team behind TESSERAE believes that their modular, self-assembly method can lower payload weight and reduce construction complexity, while also broadening the possibilities of what future space architecture may look like.

TESSERAE assembly concept: Flat-packed for launch, tiles released to swirl and quasi-stochastically self assemble, target geometry, constellation of multiple docked TESSERAE modules. Credit: Ariel Ekblaw

Each TE...

The 10 most promising construction startups of 2021, from AI contract reviewers to cloud-based material management

2021-11-24T14:02:00-05:00

The ten winners of the Construction Startup Competition 2021 have been announced by CEMEX Ventures, recognizing the most promising startup companies in the construction sector for this year. The overall winner of the competition was Document Crunch, an AI-powered software which can identify and explain critical issues in construction contracts.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Document Crunch allows users to upload documents online to be reviewed by an AI software to analyze risk, understand waivers, and highlight indemnity and insurance obligations. As well as reviewing construction contracts and insurance policies, the software can also analyze plans, drawings, and specifications, categorizing elements such as design responsibility, confidentiality requirements, hazardous materials, and warranty obligations.

Document Crunch was one of ten winning projects in the competi...

ETH Zurich unveils robotically-assembled sculpture inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

2021-11-23T16:59:00-05:00

Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have offered an insight into the design and fabrication of a new architectural sculpture, built with the help of artificial intelligence and four robots. The structure, standing 22.5 meters (74 feet) in height, will consist of five geometrically-complex wooden pods all slightly offset from each other and supported by eight thin steel pillars.

Image: Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich

Titled "Semiramis" after the Babylonian queen associated in folklore with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the sculpture is currently being manufactured at ETH Zurich’s Robotic Fabrication Laboratory. In what the team describes as a “delicate dance for the highest precision,” the wooden pods are being assembled by four suspended robotic arms, each collecting wooden panels and placing them in accordance with a computer-generated design.

Image: Pascal Bach / Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich

Once the robotic arms have placed four panels next to each other, cra...

ICON's new 3D printed homes in Austin are “safer, more resilient homes”

2021-08-31T10:47:00-04:00

ICON has released photographs of their completed multi-family homes in Austin, Texas which make use of 3D printed construction methods. The four homes, situated in East Austin, were built for Kansas City developer 3Strands, and designed by Logan Architecture.

Image via ICON

The ground floors of the houses were built using ICON’s 3D-printed Vulcan construction system, while the upper floors were constructed using a traditional timber frame system. Other features of note include energy-efficient tankless water heaters, standing seam metal sliding and roof panels, and internal quartz and Carrera marble countertops.

Image via ICON

Speaking during the announcement of the project’s completion, ICON pointed to the potential for 3D printed technology to offer “safer, more resilient homes that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built homes.”

Kitchen area. Image via ICON

The homes’ internal finishes and fixtures were curated by Aus...

Habitat for Humanity builds its first 3D-printed house in the U.S.

2021-06-15T10:21:00-04:00

Habitat for Humanity is progressing on their first 3D-printed home in the United States. Overseen by Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona, the single-story home is currently under construction in the city of Tempe, Arizona. The global housing non-profit sees the project as an important step in their future for delivering affordable housing across the country.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

The home is being built using a combination of 3D printing and traditional construction. Between 70-80% of the home will be 3D printed, including the internal and external walls, all using a Build on Demand Printer (BOD 2) shipped from Germany-based PERI Group. The printer works in three dimensions, with an XY axis allowing horizontal construction, and a raising and lowering of the printing frame to allow vertical construction. This gantry principle allows the printer to move into any position within the structure to build inner and outer walls layer-by-layer.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

Health and...

Autonomous robot dog deployed at Denver construction site

2020-05-28T19:15:00-04:00

After months of testing by multiple general contractors, Boston Dynamics’ Spot the robot dog is being put to use in a real-world scenario, at the Denver International Airport’s multibillion-dollar expansion and renovation project.

According to Construction Dive, Hensel Phelps employees have used the autonomous machine to perform multiple scans at the airport's Great Hall jobsite. Using Spot Walk, an application developed by Boston Dynamics, the robot can travel the same preplanned route to document project progress on the jobsite.

Construction tech developer unveils nation's first fully autonomous construction equipment

2020-03-05T12:35:00-05:00

Construction tech developer Built Robotics’ fully autonomous construction equipment is now available to contractors and heavy machine operators. A software upgrade to excavating equipment will allow the machinery to operate autonomously or be piloted remotely, making it the first of its kind to be offered commercially in the U.S.

According to Construction Dive, Built Robotics' software enables its equipment to perform tasks fully autonomously. Digging trenches, excavating foundations, and grading building pads can all be managed remotely via a web-based platform.

Funding flows to construction technology start-ups

2019-07-24T09:36:00-04:00

Funding in US-based construction tech startups totals just $196.5 million across 44 deals halfway through 2019. Still, $192.6 million across 44 deals is still significantly lower than the $1.274 billion raised by US-based construction startups in the first half of 2018.

The bustling world of construction technology start-ups is off to a slow start in 2019, as mid-year funding statistics point to a marked drop in investment for these insurgent companies over 2018's blockbuster year, Crunchbase reports.

Whether or not 2018's record investment, including Katerra's $865 million haul, was a one-time fluke remains to be seen. Either way, that's not stopping funders from supporting companies like Rhumbix, a San Francisco-based field data-capturing platform that helps builders go paperless on the job site, which recently received a $14.3 million in new investment.

Trevor Zimmerman, managing partner at investment firm Blackthorn Ventures, told Crunchbase, “Today, foreman and laborers have supercomputers in the form of smartphones in their pockets,” adding, “That’s enabling companies like Rhumbix to bring efficiency gains to construction that other sectors, like manufacturing, were able to access over a decade ago with desktop computers.”

New York City-base...

Autonomous crane technology receives investment boost

2018-09-27T14:52:00-04:00

With industrial robotics forecast to be worth $71.72 billion by 2023, it’s no wonder entrepreneurs are turning their attention to increasingly lucrative sectors, like warehouse automation, order fulfillment, and manufacturing. Tel Aviv-based Intsite is one of the latest examples. The startup today announced a $1.35 million pre-seed round led by Terra Venture Partners and the Israel Innovation Authority to fund what it claims is the world’s first autonomous crane technology.

Image: Intsite

AI-powered autonomous construction technology is poised to see enormous growth in the coming years, promising to significantly increase efficiency, cut costs & realization time, and reduce human errors as well as workplace-related injuries.

"According to McKinsey, about 98 percent of construction mega-projects go significantly over budget, in part as a result of heavy equipment inefficiencies," reports Venture Beat.

TyBot: a robot invented for tying steel reinforcement bars in construction

2017-11-16T13:47:00-05:00

Tybot is a robot recently invented that can tie together steel reinforcement bars saving time and reducing risk in construction projects. Thousands of joints must be tied before pouring the concrete, however this step has traditionally been labor intensive, hazardous, and a cause for major delays in the building process.

This robot is the first offering from the firm Advanced Construction Robotics (ACR) launched by construction firm boss Steve Muck and robotics expert Jeremy Searock. The machine only requires transportation and setting up the frame using the existing infrastructure, which can be done in half a day's work. TyBot is then ready to go to work, often at night, needing only one worker supervising it in operation.

Click below and watch TyBot in action.

Do robots get a lunch break?

2017-11-13T12:18:00-05:00

The construction sector is going to look very different in a decade or two – and so is its workforce. Are we going to be ready for it? Or will we fall behind?

What will the future of construction sites be? What will they look like and who will be wearing the hard hats. Does technology need a hard hat? With the industry shifting with 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence and increased productivity, how then will the construction industry at large change?

For more, listen to a podcast on the shifts in the construction industry.

Efficiency-enhancing drones could dramatically reduce construction costs

2016-09-27T13:32:00-04:00

According to this Fortune article, it's estimated that the construction industry wastes billions of dollars annually in poorly organized and distributed materials, a practice that could be eliminated with omnipresent flying drones. The trick is to create software that can process what the drones see on each construction site into data that humans can quickly comprehend and efficiently implement. Autodesk is investing in developing software and hardware that can convey this information, which may dramatically cut construction costs (and perhaps make architects rethink how they bill for projects).

For more on drones:

Begin your week with this serene video of two drones building a bridge by themselves

2015-09-21T12:56:00-04:00

These magnanimous drones, themselves having no need for a footbridge, build a suspension bridge for their human underlings in the Flying Machine Arena laboratory of ETH Zurich.

Developed as part of ongoing research in aerial construction, these two quadrocopters are capable of building the entire bridge by dispensing a motorized spool of Dyneema rope between two scaffolding surfaces, using a combination of knots, braids and wraps. When the drones are finished, the triumphant researchers walk from one end to the other.

Video credits: Aerial construction is a collaboration between the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control and Gramazio Kohler Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 2015