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China Technology Science

China Is 3D Printing a Massive 590-Foot-Tall Dam, And Constructing It Without Humans (popularmechanics.com) 90

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Chinese engineers will take the ideas of a research paper and turn it into the world's largest 3D-printed project. Popular Mechanics: Within two years, officials behind this project want to fully automate the unmanned construction of a 590-foot-tall dam on the Tibetan Plateau to build the Yangqu hydropower plant -- completely with robots. The paper, published last month in the Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology), laid out the plans for the dam, as first reported in the South China Morning Post. Researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing explain the backbone of automation for the planned Yellow River dam that will eventually offer nearly five billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. (It's worth noting that China's Three Gorges Dam -- a hydroelectric gravity dam spanning the Yangtze River -- is the world's largest power station in terms of energy output.) But it's hard to tell what's more ambitious: the fact that the researchers plan to turn a dam site into effectively a massive 3D-printing project, or that through every step of the process the project eliminates human workers as they go fully robotic.

In the dam-"printing" process, machinery will deliver construction materials to the worksite -- the exact location needed, eliminating human error, they say -- and then unmanned bulldozers, pavers, and rollers will form the dam layer by layer. Sensors on the rollers will keep the artificial intelligence (AI) system informed about the firmness and stability of each of the 3D-printed layers until it reaches 590 feet in height, about the same height as the Shasta Dam in California and shorter than the Hoover Dam's 726 feet. With the largest existing 3D-printed structures rising about 20 feet tall -- from houses in China to an office building in Dubai -- the exploration of 3D-printed projects continues to expand. Already we've seen a 1,640-foot-long retention wall in China, housing and office buildings across the globe, and now the U.S. Army has plans for barracks at Fort Bliss in Texas.
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China Is 3D Printing a Massive 590-Foot-Tall Dam, And Constructing It Without Humans More

China Is 3D Printing a Massive 590-Foot-Tall Dam, And Constructing It Without Humans

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  • machinery will deliver construction materials to the worksite -- the exact location needed, eliminating human error,

    I wonder how often human error causes problems in dam construction.

    • Re: Human error (Score:5, Informative)

      by Grokew ( 8384065 ) on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:30PM (#62553810)
      Apparently most of the time or so this article says. https://www.constructiondive.c... [constructiondive.com] That aside, I think this is a good experiment, and I hope it all works well.

      • Re: Human error (Score:4, Insightful)

        by vlad30 ( 44644 ) on Saturday May 21, 2022 @01:54AM (#62554018)
        With the general level of intelligence in the construction industry these days, Add in cost cutting, cheating, and corruption. It is more surprising anything actually stands for any length of time. I can understand why removing the humans from construction is desirable.

    • Re:Human error (Score:4, Funny)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:31PM (#62553814) Homepage

      I wonder how often human error causes problems in dam construction.

      Dam if I know.

    • I wonder how often human error causes problems in dam construction

      Very rarely really. I mean, even in the early days only a few dozen to a few hundred tops died constructing each dam. The human body is only about 0.06 cubic meters while dams can go in excess of millions of cubic meters so it’s rarely over 6 parts in a million human errors.

    • Re:Human error (Score:4, Informative)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday May 20, 2022 @11:33PM (#62553882) Homepage Journal

      If you mean errors leading to dam *failures*, I don't think very often. Most failures seem to be the result of design, siting, surveying or maintenance errors. Construction errors seem to be of the intentional, cost cutting type rather than the worker screwing up type.

    • One bad algorithm can cause a lot of problems.

    • machinery will deliver construction materials to the worksite -- the exact location needed, eliminating human error,

      I wonder how often human error causes problems in dam construction.

      I wonder how often software/hardware error will cause problems in dam construction.

      Machine doesn't mean perfect, it generally means consistency within strictly defined bounds, but humans are quite adept at proactively identifying and correcting errors. Of course, a dam seems like a nice consistent structure to try this approach on.

      Either way it's a very cool idea, I'll be very curious to see how it goes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Just shifted it a bit anyways. Now it will be "software error", which is "human error" in disguise.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

        It's not quite the same. Bug fixes don't disappear when you run the software on a different machine. Each individual human can invent new and creative bugs for you to try to stamp out during training.

    • I stopped at Chinese Engineers.

  • Where can I get some dam filament for my dam 3D printer?

  • I don't see any American company capable of doing this fully automated unmanned construction of a 590-foot-tall dam in 2 years, and likely under budget. All you hear about now is how US companies like Boeing is over budget and failing in nearly every project and blaming everything on the pandemic and inflation, blaming everything but itself.

    • Re:US used to dream big and do big this like this. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Friday May 20, 2022 @10:42PM (#62553842)
      China can't either. If they can I'll eat my shoe. Whatever they say happens this is going to have hourly intervention by humans at most levels of construction.
      • Maybe, maybe not. I think it was PBS I saw a Chinese construction firm that turned a mine pit into a indoor snow/ski area and the top was an amusement park I think. Huge project, many problems were worked thru that no one expected. If I remember right, it opened on time, even with the unexpected problems. China is now more like the US was in the 40s and 50s. They will work day and night if they have to. US is more like a friend of mine. Work thru lunch, are you crazy.
        • The issue is not whether China can work through problems and accomplish big things, the issue is that automation is extremely challenging, for China, for the US, for everyone.

          To really automate something as complex as dam building to the level the article describes (no humans), and to end up with a successfully completed project, requires more time and money than China (or anyone) would (maybe could) possibly on it.

          Automating specific areas to a degree that saves time and money is of course possible, as
          • I'll wait and see if they succeed. Really I was surprised they pulled off the indoor ski slope thing. They might surprise me again.

    • After riding Epcot's Universe of Energy attraction more times than I'd like to admit, I know this one.

      We've used up most of the best locations for dams, and there's also environmental consequences to blocking the natural flow of rivers.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ahodgson ( 74077 )

      It takes us decades to build anything now in Canada. I seriously can't understand how we used to actually be able to get shit done.

      • It takes us decades to build anything now in Canada. I seriously can't understand how we used to actually be able to get shit done.

        Can you imagine trying to build the Trans-Canada highway or the CPR today? Could never happen. Too many whiners.

      • It's much easier to get things done when you're a tyrant and don't have to worry about people objecting, and I'd there is a failure and people die, well you can brush that under the carpet too.

    • I don't see any American company capable of doing this [...]

      Maybe that's the big difference there. China can dream big because the biggest companies (excluding those digital paper tigers like Alibaba) are owned by the state. So all you need is to capture the attention and approval of a high enough party official, and your project gets greenlit.

  • Sigh, automated concreting now ... (Score:3)

    by evanh ( 627108 ) on Saturday May 21, 2022 @12:12AM (#62553938)

    I guess it explains why I never worked out why prototypers got renamed to 3D printers. Lol, it's like "mobile" for everything that has a battery.

    It'll be one marketing term for all before long.

  • If this kind of automation takes over every day jobs.

  • This dam will be built without humans. The Great Wall, by contrast, incorporates a great many humans.

  • Let see if it fails.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kelxin ( 3417093 ) on Saturday May 21, 2022 @01:31AM (#62553996)
    Like everything else that's made in China. Gates rubber company recently switched it's timing belt component kit to bearings made in China and even those are failing left and right within 1% of their estimated lifespan.

    • So sad that you got modded down for that. Everyone who knows anything about anything knows China bearings are shit. Typically everything about them is bad, the metallurgy, the hardening... you name it, they fuck it up.

      The quality of Bosch starters and alternators has gone in the toilet since they sold their 12V line to China. Apparently they can't manage that stuff either.

      The existence of a small percentage of adequate-quality goods coming out of China doesn't change the overall picture, which is dismal.

      • Re:Let see if it fails.... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by caseih ( 160668 ) on Saturday May 21, 2022 @09:55AM (#62554484)

        The thing is Chinese companies can manufacture bearings or anything else of any quality, something that is increasingly difficult to say about American companies. It's not the Chinese that are making rubbish, it's that the west is demanding rubbish. Bosch wants crap quality alternators at low, low cost, and Chinese companies deliver in spades. If Bosch (and all of us in general) really truly wanted quality goods, they would be more than happy to make them, and it would cost us more, which we're not willing to pay.

        If you want examples of true rubbish quality goods and cheap prices, you can look at products produced right here in North America. Everything is just barely engineered to hold together and function at a minimum level. I just wired a building using Eaton electrical panels, made in the USA. Complete rubbish. Thin cheap metal with lots of sharp edges. The whole thing bends and twists when you insert or remove breakers. None of the screw holes has any threads but relies on self-tapping screws of dubious quality. There are countless examples of made in America products that are bottom of the barrel quality. And yet of course I also am guilty of simply picking the cheapest one.

        Sorry but Chinese companies simply learn from the best. The west, particularly the US, leads the world in cost cutting, bare minimum quality, maximizing quarterly profits.

        • The thing is Chinese companies can manufacture bearings or anything else of any quality

          The available evidence does not bear that out.

          It's not the Chinese that are making rubbish, it's that the west is demanding rubbish

          Nobody is demanding bearings that don't meet their listed specifications. Nobody. It just costs money when they fail, sometimes a lot of money because someone dies.

          Bosch wants crap quality alternators at low, low cost, and Chinese companies deliver in spades

          No, and you just demonstrated you can't or won't read my comment, so why bother? Bosch sold their 12V starter and alternator business to a Chinese company, and licensed them the name. The quality immediately went in the shithole when Bosch was no longer involved, because Bosch does not want crap quali

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            Bosch obviously didn't and doesn't care, or they wouldn't have sold it off in the first place. They were looking for something to maximize their short-term profits for their shareholders, plain and simple. They chose to sell it to a chinese company knowing the quality would be lowered most likely, but hoping it wouldn't matter or be noticed. And I'm sure their former customers were thinking they could take advantage of low labor costs. If their reputation takes a hit, then good. Maybe it will teach them

        • No, I bought gates because they USED to be good and USED to sell Japanese fabricated bearings. They BAIT AND SWITCHED with the boxes STILL SAYING MADE IN JAPAN. When you open the box it's filled with Chinese shit. I demanded and paid for high quality. Corporate greed is what demanded more money in their pockets and sold their morals. I've returned that package to Amazon and bought Aisen, because AGAIN, I demand and am willing to pay for quality.

      • you name it, they fuck it up.

        No they don't. They deliver exactly what is asked including quality control commensurate with the price you wanted to pay. Chinese isn't any better or worse than anything else. They do however carter to the garbage market that the West is so desperate to support.

        If the OP is being modded down it's for assuming that everything Chinese is crap rather than the reality: we're only willing to pay for crap.

        • They deliver exactly what is asked including quality control commensurate with the price you wanted to pay

          They frequently deliver things that don't meet specifications. If they need to charge more to meet the specifications, then they should be honest about that when bidding.

        • One of Apple's Chinese suppliers started delivering out-of-spec screens.

          This was found in May 2022 - it's not old news.

          https://forums.macrumors.com/t... [macrumors.com]

        • No, I paid for Japanese bearings. Gates bait and switched to Chinese while still charging Japanese prices and bad labeling on the boxes still claiming Japanese. Do a YouTube search for gates Chinese timing belt kit and you'll see what I mean.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

        I don't know that end, but I use certain rubber and metal items in my business, and the Chinese versions... thin metal no longer holds up as expected but now tears like paper, and rubber goes to shit first time it spends any time in the sun.

        Or why when I had to spend $1200 for a set of truck tires, I went out of my way (and actually paid no more for) to find tires Made In USA. They are now 9 years old, have worked hard, and are still 100% free of cracks. USA-made tires on my old travel trailer were dated 19

        • the Chinese tires on my junk trailer were completely gone to shit (as in rubber falling off the sidewalls) by the time they were five years old, and had a fraction of the miles and work on 'em.

          Russia's rollin' on Chinese tires. Look at how well that's working out for them.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

            Yeah, I've wondered how that's working out for a whole bunch of the world that relies on Chinese tires.

            There are a few other sources, but mostly they're Chinese.

    • China can make perfectly high quality stuff. You just think they don't because you buy from companies who look to China as a way squeeze down costs. Everything sucks when it's cheap no matter where it's made.

  • Who are the Without Humans, and why are they beneficial in a 3D printer?

  • hydroelectric gravity dam spanning
    Something like ``hydroelectric gravity damÂÂ makes my head spinning.

  • ...to everyone else. I hope it goes well & the rest of the world takes notice. While our planet cooks, we'll need to get better at water management as well as clean power generation.

  • ...eliminating human error, they say...

    I'm sure they've also eliminated human error while creating the tools to eliminated human errors made by, your know, humans.

    You know, the AI they're talking about was the one building all of the necessary unmanned tools in order to build the dam "human error free."

    Because, you know, humanity is living in the greatest time where the first AI took consciousness and say: "Hey!, you fool non-error-free humans! let ME, the AI, build a dam for you, human-error free."

    I'm so glad that we left behind tha

  • ...and if it fails, shrug, it's only Tibet and Tibetians at risk.

    Signed,
    China.

  • The Soviet Union used to make grand proclamations such as this. They did so to please "fearless leader" and "prove" the superiority of the soviet system over everything else. Didn't work. China is simply following in their footsteps.

    • You're funny, USA by far the worst chest thumper claiming superiority even as it invades and kills countries that didn't attack it, all for power and profit. Maybe you should worry about USA instead of countries in asia that will eventually surpass USA in power and wealth (China soon, India later).

      • No, I'm hysterically funny. My kids can tell you that. LOL!

        But, on the serious side, I never said anything about the US or claimed any "superiority". That was you comrade. I merely pointed out the historical fact that the Soviet Union used to do the same things that, as the article points out, China is doing. Maybe it's your inferiority complex that's got you so butt-hurt over it. Or, maybe, it's just a penile issue... Dunno. Don't care.

        But, since we're on the topic of "invading and killing countries that d

  • Why, in China, 'without humans'? (Score:3)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Saturday May 21, 2022 @01:44PM (#62554860) Journal
    Why the fuck would China, who has over a billion people in it, need to bother using robots for anything whatsoever? Don't they need to employ as many of them as possible? Isn't it hard enough to keep them all working and earning a living? Also, they want their people to be as much like robots to begin with, so again why bother with actual robots of any kind? I call bullshit on all of this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      You forget that the CCP needs all the propaganda it can muster so people don't start wondering why such a parasite afflicts Chinese society.

    • Oh it's definitely BS
      It says right in the article that they can't print rebar or pipes or anything more than basic concrete
      So the entire powerhouse needs to be done by humans
      I've been working on the site c dam project for a few years now. This tech could build the earthfill part that blocks the river, which is about half of the dam going by how many billions of dollars the contract was worth. So realistically, you're only getting rid of rock-truck drivers and some other heavy equipment operators.

    • The time when China was full with kulis who where paid by daily work a few scrubs to live on ended around 1950. Perhaps you should read a bit about history.

      Now we have 2022, in case you missed the news, and China is the leading nation on the planet. They just lack carriers, in case you want to compare them with gods own country.

  • When the thing is finally finished, please turn it and Tibet back to the Tibetans from whom you stole it. The CCP can still play with their toys in China generating more air pollution and arid soil conditions. Admittedly the CCP might have an identity crisis, but then it isn't as though it is an elected government entity. While we're on the subject of giving things back, please free Hong Kong so they can govern themselves without your bloody hands all over it.

    • Pffft, Hong Kong was party of China over 2000 years ago. It will continue to be China's as long as China exists, which will likely be pretty damn long.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )

        Pffft, Hong Kong was party of China over 2000 years ago. It will continue to be China's as long as China exists, which will likely be pretty damn long.

        And that's a real shame. The erosion of those people's rights continues and many are now arrested for things we take for granted here in the US.

    • And USA, please, give back to the native, while we are at it.

  • Since eventually every Chinese worker will be placed into quarantine robots will have to do all the work.

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