Thomas Sisson and I will be working together on the term
project “Automated, Lightweight Construction on Mars”. Our project explores the
idea of autonomous building construction in an isolated environment roughly 140
million miles from Earth. The main goal of this project is to research a construction
method that can be deployed prior to astronauts reaching the planet. The
primary benefit to autonomous construction in this situation is that we can
send up a construction rocket to begin construction of a colony before humans
get there. This would save on construction time and could even prevent loss of
life in the event that the construction rocket is damaged en route to the
location.
My group and I chose to do this project since it directly
relates to our senior design project which is to build a self-sustaining colony
on Mars. The idea of living on Mars is becoming more and more probable, and the
use of automated construction methods are most likely going to become a
requirement since traditional construction methods are challenging in a foreign
environment. While the futuristic skyscrapers that have been the backdrop of
many sci-fi films are still lightyears away, traditional construction methods
are both time and money intensive. The use of automated construction methods
would be cost and time efficient, as well as prevent any loss of human life. These
methods aren’t just for building in space either, automated construction could
be implemented now and would impact the way construction is completed on Earth.
This project relates to intelligent buildings because it takes
the topics we have been discussing in class, such as robotics and artificial
intelligence, and directly relates it to designing and constructing buildings.
Automated construction is most likely going to be the next step in the engineering
and construction industry and is already prominent in some countries.
There a couple problems that come with this project, with
the primary being location. While we have a general map of Mars from what was
gathered from rovers and satellites, it doesn’t have any of the technologies,
such as GPS tracking, which is what we use for robots on Earth. Another challenge
we face is power, all the methods we have researched for this project will
require a way to recharge since batteries don’t last forever and solar power is
40% of that on Earth. A way of working around this by
creating a colony that uses lighter materials which will reduce the power
requirements. The weaker gravity on Mars also poses a challenge for drone
construction, the major issue is not knowing how much lift will be generated on
Mars. This does not eliminate drones all together, since they could still be used for ensuring proper alignment of the structure.
Comments:
Mark O,
I really like that your team is deciding to follow the design process used in the industry since it's what you'll probably end up doing eventually! I think this is a great way to experiment and play around with the other things Revit can do aside from the architectural and structural elements. I've always wanted to do this myself, since we don't get a lot of classes that allow us to explore the MEP side of Revit. I would love to read the rest of your experience!
Kerry M,
I remember watching that movie! It was actually one of the movies that sparked my interest in buildings and the idea of a "smart" house. I like how you addressed the idea that only new construction can be "smart", since most people don't have the money to move into a new place. Intelligent appliances would be the easiest way for an existing home to turn into a smart home.
I remember watching that movie! It was actually one of the movies that sparked my interest in buildings and the idea of a "smart" house. I like how you addressed the idea that only new construction can be "smart", since most people don't have the money to move into a new place. Intelligent appliances would be the easiest way for an existing home to turn into a smart home.
Jordan S,
I like that you are incorporating one of your interests with this term project. I think the idea of having robots in an archival space such as a library is very interesting and is most likely another step in the way of intelligent buildings. I'm assuming that these robots will be using some type of code to locate the book required, but what would happen if the book is misplaced? I'm sure this issue would come up in your research, I look forward to reading more about it!
I like that you are incorporating one of your interests with this term project. I think the idea of having robots in an archival space such as a library is very interesting and is most likely another step in the way of intelligent buildings. I'm assuming that these robots will be using some type of code to locate the book required, but what would happen if the book is misplaced? I'm sure this issue would come up in your research, I look forward to reading more about it!
A life on mars sounds interesting, and your project is very interesting but it leads me thinking how many spaceships and trips will this require for building one place “let’s say a house” and what are the environmental impacts of those spaceship as they leave earth and go into space, and since automated construction will definitely increase the traffic in space, I wonder if that will have an impact on the environment in space. I would also like to comment about your problem statement it shows that you have thoroughly thought the challenges that may come with your project.
ReplyDeleteBest of Luck on your project.
I like your topic since it directly relates to your senior design project. For some of your challenges, do you know if there is any research or development into any of those factors? Such as if there were to be developments into creating a colony on Mars, would there be any possibility of setting up GPS systems for these automated builders? I am certainly interested in hearing about how you and Tom combat these problems and what the possible solutions are. Good luck!
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ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of Elon Musk and his ambitious vision of human living on Mars. I think finding a building method on Mars would be a very challenging task. I still think that it would be more realistic to have some astronauts on Mars to control all the robots and drones. In addition to limited energy sources, Mars is infamous for intense dust storms, thus you might want to take that in consideration. Good luck on your project!
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