Ever wanted a robot vacuum and a 3D printer hybrid?
Ever wanted a robot vacuum and a 3D printer hybrid?
MobiPrint is a mash-up of a 3D printer and a robot vacuum that autonomously maps rooms and fabricates objects right where they are needed.
…no.
Must be horrible to get the print bed leveled.
Room-scale DnD dungeons anyone?
And it'll only take 3-4 months to print it!...oh, and you can't really use your home while it prints because of noise and VOCs.
Crank up that in-floor-heating! The printer's running!
That depends.
Is it gonna use the stuff it vacuums up as printing material? Cuz that'd be neat as fuck.
So many questions...
Does it use some high-distance sensor fusion, it only prints things smaller than those builtin rails, or it just assumes wheels never lose traction and fails on every print?
How is the adherence of a random household floor? Does it require some kind of wax or it fails on every print?
Again, how is the adherence of a random household floor? Can objects be removed after printing? Because if you expect models to be correct on the first try, you'll fail on every print.
I'm sure I can fix a "why?" somewhere among the questions, but the "how?" is so interesting it would only waste space.
But why?
It's a step in a new direction, a proof of concept. Maybe in the future something similar could be useful for road work or on mars or idk. No innovation & development without experimenting. You have to start somewhere and with stuff that is available.
And even if nothing comes of it, I bet it was a fun project to work on.
It could lead to a room size print bed, as in i wonder what the largest object it can currently make is.
Would also be neat if it could scan objects in the room as well, a lot more print in place capabilities with an idea like that.
Seems novel, but I agree with you, seems like it could lead to further neat innovation. Though it is pretty wild they chose a vacuum bot lol.
Honestly, If it is ever made to work. A mobile/robotic 3d printer would be a huge step forward. Solving the issue of levelling on more random surfaces, IE all existing surfaces. Plus the Issue of moving heat stability with different plastics. It all sounds doable in an open design way. But hugely complex and in need of this type of nutcase to start it off.
But the advantages it would give to home-maker like design would be freaking huge once things become well understood. Adding already developing multi mateial heads etc.
As I have said elsewhere. Never underestimate the value of someone insane enough to try and make dumb shit work. Almost everything we depend on started from someone thinking the most insane idea would be fun to try.
Or hear me out, you print the object and then move it somewhere.
Nah, sounds complicated.
The worst of both worlds, good luck getting a decent print on something moving and good luck vacuuming anything with a giant thing on top of it. It would be lucky just to not to get caught on anything
This AI craze has gone too far. Please don't actually produce random AI generated product ideas.