2024-12-31T04:10:32-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150309616/china-is-building-a-massive-new-hydroelectric-dam-with-ai-controlled-robots-and-3d-printing-technology Josh Niland 2022-05-11T15:37:00-04:00 >2022-05-12T13:34:15-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/c9/c9eed526d7ee5fc9e41ff5a411bb1379.jpeg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>China is using artificial intelligence to effectively turn a dam project on the Tibetan Plateau into the world&rsquo;s largest 3D printer, according to scientists involved in the project. The 180 metre (590 feet) high Yangqu hydropower plant will be built slice by slice &ndash; using unmanned excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers, all controlled by AI &ndash; in the same additive manufacturing process used in 3D printing.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The Yangqu dam&nbsp;project is set to finish in two years and is being overseen by <a href="https://archinect.com/schools/cover/14275323/tsinghua-university" target="_blank">Tsinghua University</a>&rsquo;s Liu Tianyun, who <a href="http://jst.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2022.25.045" target="_blank">recently argued</a> that developments in 3D printing have made the technology &ldquo;identical to nature.&rdquo;</p> <p>Its purported future annual output of nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity for Henan Province is a full billion more than that of the Hoover Dam, whose WPA-era construction was similarly the product of two decades worth of advancements in <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/41141%28390%2920" target="_blank">engineering and construction technologies</a>.</p>