New robot woven fiberglass structure

If the fiberglass tube suddenly breaks out, you may think that you have inadvertently encountered an alien invasion. But this kind of pipe is a real thing. It is woven by the newly developed automated robot and is designed to build large structures such as bridges and temporary shelters with minimal manpower.

Each "fiber robot" has a squat arm that pulls the fiber out of the surface tank, mixes the material in the nozzle, and wraps the wet fiber around itself, like a cocoon. Next, the robot turns on the ultraviolet light and “cooks” the fiber into a hard tube. Subsequently, it deflated its body and slowly climbed onto the hardened fibers with tiny motors and wheels. There, the whole process begins again.

Such robots can utilize different winding modes to vary the thickness and orientation of the tube. At the time of construction, fiber robots can communicate with each other through a computer network to avoid hitting each other or encountering other obstacles. They can calculate the most efficient way to build a given structure.

Within 12 hours, a team of 22 robots was able to build two 4.5-meter-high (almost the same height as a double-decker bus), a tree-like structure. Researchers reported the results in the journal Science-Robotics, which was published a few days ago. The researchers originally wanted the robots to weave the "trees" in the middle to form a tent-like residence. But they found that such robots would actually "overkill" to avoid hitting each other. The structure was unscathed for seven months in the squally, heavy rain and heavy snow in the autumn and winter, until the researchers dismantle it.

The team said the technology could be used to build structures in remote environments where terrain conditions are unknown, such as after extreme weather events, because construction instructions can be wirelessly transmitted to the robot. They then transform the blueprint around any obstacles that may appear on its path to accommodate the terrain.

Through further testing and improvement, scientists say that fiber robots can be used on other planets. They do look like things on the surface of Mars.