GXN Innovation, an independent research subsidiary of Danish architecture firm3XN, has launched ‘Break the Grid’, a new initiative exploring how to make 3D printers autonomously mobile. Collaborating with theDanish AM Hub, Denmark’s platform for digital and additive manufacturing, andMAP Architects该研究计划是位于哥本哈根的建筑设计工作室，将寻求创建现有3D打印机的物理和虚拟黑客。雷电竞app下载
The aim of the research is to establish more efficient methods of dealing with urban, social and environmental change. By modifying 3D printers to autonomously move, the design partners hope to meet the global challenges of population growth and climate change, which poses a threat to buildings, infrastructure and cities across the world.
GXN的创始人Ka雷电竞app下载sper Jensen解释说：“释放3D打印机来应对这些挑战可能是一场革命。”
“By enabling 3D printing robots to crawl, swim, and fly, we can address pressing environmental threats around the world at lower cost and with greater efficiency.”
Break the Grid is also a part of the Moonshots initiative from Danish AM Hub, which supports projects working towards pushing the limits of 3D printing in order to create a better world.
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GXN, established in 2007 by 3XN, seeks to create new approaches to environmentally beneficial design while pushing the boundaries of architecture. The Danish AM Hub is supporting GXN in order to carry out its own goals, which revolves around providing advice on additive manufacturing to the Danish ecosystem, with the aim of getting industry to see the multifaceted potential of 3D printing.
The foundation of the Break the Grid project is based on three scenarios presenting global challenges where autonomous additive manufacturing would be crucial. Members of the research team envisioned a near future where technological advances in robotics and machine learning have mobilized 3D printers to move autonomously through our environments to solve these challenges. Then, the team created mobile mechanical prototypes of 3D printers using existing sensing and printing technology. With the prototypes, different virtual hacks were explored to enable mobile 3D printing on land, underwater and in the air.
该项目提出的第一个全球挑战解决了全球基础设施的恶化。具体而言，它针对微裂缝；混凝土结构进一步损害的起点。水和氧气可以进入裂缝并腐蚀混凝土结构。为了应对这种情况，项目团队假设3D打印机可以使用多孔填充材料来修复微裂缝。雷电竞app下载填充物将与称为“ Trichoderma Reesei”的真菌混合，该真菌能够形成碳酸钙。这很有用，因为碳酸钙通常用于工业环境中，以中和土壤和水中的酸性条件，因此可以防止腐蚀。配备了3D打印机的自主六角形将侦察城市和远程混凝土基础设施，在可能发生进一步损坏之前识别用于修复的微裂缝。
A second global challenge centers around the damage caused by climate change on coastal habitats. It is said that over 10 percent of coastal populations live less than 10 meters above sea level. They are considered increasingly vulnerable to coastal storms and tsunamis. The researchers used a synthetic glue with the same properties of a specialized adhesive produced by oysters, based on research fromPurdue Universityand theUniversity of South Carolina. Break the Grid considers whether 3D printing ROVs could go underwater to mix the glue with ocean floor sands. This would create a wet-setting binder, that can be used to 3D print artificial reef structures in order to protect the coasts while also providing habitats for marine life.
最终的全球挑战试图应对主要城市中高层建筑物衰减而导致的热量损失。这些建筑物的许多立面都需要维修或更好的隔热材料，以防止进一步的降解和逃避热量。为了为旧建筑物创建新的热隔离材料，团队正在通过将玻璃与高性能聚合物结合起来的功能分级材料的使用，这皇家艺术学院in London. In order to apply the insulation, the Break the Grid team conceived a drone-based 3D printing system to identify and fill thermal bridges in the older high-rise buildings. This would allow for lower costs due to reduced labour and less human interaction, leading to an efficient material-based solution.
“Converging technologies are enabling new approaches to construction,” commented Mads Kjøller Damkjær, CEO of The Danish AM Hub Fund. “We hope to inspire the additive manufacturing industry to envision new possibilities, which will require combining design and technology to shift our values and our current ways of thinking.”
3D printing helps to construct a better world
Many construction companies and design studios have utilized 3D printing in order to overcome some of the world’s most pressing issues with architecture.
例如,3D printing has been used to为低收入家庭创建住房in Latin America, in what is dubbed as the “world’s first3D印刷社区”. A response to the global housing crisis, the project is spearheaded by San Francisco-based design studioFuseproject德克萨斯州建筑技术公司ICON， 和New Story，一个非营利组织，无家可归。
Furthermore, theConference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit think tank based in Ottawa, released a report in November 2018 investigating thepotential of 3D printing in construction克服该国最极端的环境。针对加拿大北部的研究，该研究正在寻求通过为房屋的建设提供更具成本效益的方法来改善人们的生活质量。
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Featured image shows a drone-based 3D printing system. Image via GXN.
