3D printers have their uses. They are able to print all sorts of small-ish objects, ranging from toy dragons to even bones which are used medically, but wouldn’t it be cool if 3D printers could print something a lot bigger, say a house, for example? If you think that’s impossible, think again because the folks at the University of Southern California have designed a giant robot that is able to 3D print a house! In fact it works so fast that a 232sqm home can be actually built and finished in 24 hours! Dubbed Contour Crafting, the robot was the brainchild of Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis who calls it, “basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building,”The printer will rely on being positioned on two tracks and will be able to work in both the X and Y axis once it has been calibrated. Now we’re sure some are wondering how might this affect the jobs of construction workers? Well undoubtedly there will be some side-effects to this, but according to Khoshnevis, “the reality is that a lot of new jobs can be created in this sector as well (from it).” In fact this technology might not necessarily have to be limited to just the Earth, but could also be sent into space where the technology might then be able to help create habitats on other planets. Now that would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?
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