In the world of additive manufacturing today, there is a diligent marathon to create larger 3d-printers, with the same goal in mind: 3d-print larger objects. In some cases, researchers are already creating concepts to 3d-print entire buildings. Enrico Dini, an engineer from Italy, has already started to revolutionize construction by successfully 3d-printing buildings out of sand. The central weakness of these concepts is the idea of always needing the printer to be larger than the object it is creating. re路fuse proposes an alternative solution: integrate all of these existing additive manufacturing technologies into a freely navigable robot. Much like a paper wasp gathers fibers from dead wood and plant stems, mixes it with a moisture content, saliva, and constructs beautiful and functional spaces, the robot will gather nearby paper waste, process it, add a moisture content and extrude it into new spatial structures. The robot is also much like a spider, which is an arthropod, having a segmented body and hydraulically controlled legs, they navigate impossible terrain while consuming protein and extrude silk into tensile structures with silk glands. The robot will gather plastic, and while crawling up existing and newly created forms with their hydraulic legs, they will extrude plastic into tensile and waterproof structures. Using existing 3d-scanning technology, these robots will determine existing and potential spatial characteristics. Through a series of spatial, structural and environmental analyses, new proposes will be created, which provides real-time feedback of material needs and design proposals to a central network for humans to review and revise if desired. This will be a continuously looping system of material gathering, material processing, spatial analysis, new spatial/structural proposals and robotic 3d-printing.
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