Bees inspired: aerial drones are being used to 3D print structures

Construction or repair of structures in hard-to-reach places – the task is not easy. This is why scientists

are creating a bee-inspired system that uses flying drones for 3D printing. Aerial-AM is being developed by researchers from Imperial College London and the Swiss institute Empa. Discuss

This system includes two types of quadcopter drones that fly autonomously and communicate with each other.

First, it's BuilDrones. Working from a shared digital drawing, they co-create the structure by extruding successive layers of material through a nozzle on the underside.

Secondly, ScanDrones.They control the printing process by evaluating the geometry of the design as it is created. Based on these observations, they tell BuilDrones what to do next in order to stick to the blueprint and get the planned finished product.

At present, the manufacturing accuracy of the systemis plus or minus 5 mm. And although it is designed to work independently, the human operator is constantly in the know so that, if necessary, he can intervene and take over manual control.

During the smallAerial-AM was used to create a 72-layer 2.05 m high polyurethane expandable foam cylinder and a 18 cm high 28 layer cylinder of a cement-like material.

"We have proven the concept that drones can operate autonomously and in tandem for building construction and renovation, at least in the laboratory,", – said project manager Mirko Kovac.