MIT engineers develop robotic system that can 3D print houses

MIT engineers have come up with a system known as the Digital Construction Platform with the capability to 3D print structures for human habitation. Unlike conventional 3D printers, where the nozzle and the robotic arms are housed within a closed space, the DCP can be adapted to construct structures of any dimension. But the ability to design and digitally fabricate multifunctional structures in a single build embodies a shift from the machine age to the biological age — from considering the building as a machine to live in, made of standardized parts, to the building as an organism, which is computationally grown, additively manufactured, and possibly biologically augmented. The novel approaches allows for using machine intelligence in tandem with construction techniques to create houses that were not possible by human designers, or using conventional construction techniques.