From filling potholes to repairing busted power lines, maintaining a city’s infrastructure involves some serious man hours. This labor-intensive task has recently become the target of some roboticists and engineers, who have set their sights on automating at least part of the process. Now startup Addibots is looking to get in on the action, wheeling out a roving 3D printing robot it imagines will scoot around town mending dodgy road surfaces.
Dreamt up by mechanical engineer and Harvard alumni Robert Flitsch, the Addibot is more than two years of research and development in the making. Where conventional 3D printing is generally limited to producing items of a specific size, restrained by the device’s build area, the Addibot team is aiming to break down these barriers to allow for infinite 3D printing possibilities.
via Gizmag
