Get a new tool into the hands of others and they will use that tool to reshape their worlds –and everyone else’s as well. That is how innovation is supposed to work, yet robotics has been slow to get those new tools into the inventive hands of others. Until now.

3D printing or additive manufacturing is robotics first real sally into this bright new future. The results are startling, with new techniques and new products that enrich us all. 

The new 3D printing/additive manufacturing tool is out there, and because of it things are happening fast. Building a revolution with concrete is just one of them.

Concrete, the Roman invention that revolutionized construction, was lost for 13 centuries after the fall of Rome. The ability to erect a structure like the Baths of Caracalla, Roman aqueducts and bridges, as well as the dome of the Pantheon was lost. Rediscovered in 1756 by British engineer John Smeaton, inventive uses of concrete took off again.

3D printing’s new alliance with concrete. The results: Wow!

Architects, civil engineers, city planners and builders small and large everywhere now have a special tool with which to build here on Earth or anywhere else in the Universe. All 3D printing needs is materials and imagination.

Check out these two videos that illustrate the revolution:

Future of Construction Process: 3D Concrete Printing

Architect Erico Dini’s passion for the new tool: He built the world’s largest 3D printer

See related: The Beat Goes On for 3-D Printing

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