Building back up
After a disaster, people want to build houses quickly and cheaply. Behrokh Khoshnevis thinks robotics could slash the time this takes. His team at the University of Southern California have produced an automated system that dispenses layers of concrete - like squeezing toothpaste from a tube - and shapes the layers with trowels.
'This technique could produce houses 100 times faster than traditional building, at one fifth of the cost. It could even add reinforcements, plumbing and electric systems as it builds,' says Behrokh.
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