Autodesk has been championing the convergence of construction and manufacturing, and the amount that these two industries have to learn from each other. For this year's Autodesk University, they've put their money where their mouth is, and have partnered with construction and engineering company Dura Vermeer to create a transportable robotic "toolbox" to 3D print steel components right on construction sites.
The setup consists of two robots capable of 3D-printing metal components, and a shipping container for easy transportation to the jobsite. In its release on the matter, Autodesk calls it “a large-scale additive manufacturing “toolbox” for the construction industry.”
Autodesk reached out to Dura Vermeer to ask what they might use the new "toolbox" for on their construction sites, and the company came up with three possibilities.
First of all, attaching a glass curtain wall with a building structure requires very careful placement, which is difficult with standardized parts. With the toolbox, Dura Vermeer could potentially design an optimized part using generative design-based software, and then print it right on the site.
Another building challenge is the need to use multiple standard components to complete a task when a single, specialized component would be able to do the job better and have a lower labour/installation cost. Again, the company said that the new toolbox would let them print off specialized parts that combine multiple functions for the specific task at hand.
Finally, the new robot assembly would make it easier for Dura Vermeer to print parts that are both functional and beautiful as part of the overall building design, a task that becomes more important when the part is visible on the surface of the design.
Autodesk will be showing off their robot assembly, as well as some of the early piece prototypes that they've created with it, at Autodesk U in Las Vegas. After that, they plan on taking it on the road in Europe. They hope that it will be part of a push to industrialize the construction workplace: borrowing tactics from manufacturing, in order to make construction workplaces more efficient and solve for the increasing labour shortage in the field. Their press release on the new toolbox concludes, ”We can’t wait to see where our imaginations—and technology—take us next."