The 812

143 [S2E46]: Midwestern-Adobe-Style Housing, 3-D Printed by AI-Powered Robots? Yeah. Just Ask Danny Weddle

Steve Volan / Plateia Media Season 2 Episode 143

Until not too long ago, Danny Weddle was a builder of bespoke tiny homes. That got him interested in building affordable homes more cost-effectively. Now the co-founder and chief design officer of Terran Robotics, his company is building walls out of earth from the construction site... using 3-D printers, as though subsoil were just so much 3-D filament... which are run by robots run by AI — which Terran is  also inventing. 

He explains the process and the technology, which aims to reduce labor costs and make housing construction faster and more affordable. The first house built using this method is nearing completion right here in Bloomington; they have plans to build more houses starting in March. Weddle talks about the challenges of building such homes within existing local building codes, and the potential for scaling up the technology to build thousands of homes annually. 

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