Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!cat.cis.Brown.EDU!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!chpc.utexas.edu!cs.utep.edu!rgfn.epcc.edu!ac343
From: ac343@rgfn.epcc.edu (Michael S. Miner)
Subject: Re: QUESTION: REAL applications for mobile robots?
Message-ID: <1994Aug9.055708.13488@rgfn.epcc.edu>
Organization: The Rio Grande Free-Net, El Paso Community College, El Paso, TX
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References: <CtG5Ao.IxF@aisb.ed.ac.uk> <Ctnn2r.LG9@liverpool.ac.uk> <3267nn$5ee@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> <1994Aug8.225256.14199@rgfn.epcc.edu> <326u9b$aou@taco.cc.ncsu.edu>
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 05:57:08 GMT
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Over Yonder (tmjones@eos.ncsu.edu) wrote:

: The other uses I think of are for a house.  I just have trouble picturing a 
: robot laying bricks against a house wall.  Also here in Raleigh,NC they are
: building this huge Brick wall(Red clay bricks not cinder blocks) Between
: the Beltline and the Homes to defen the sound.  This thing must be ten feet tall
: and stretches several miles.  The labor cost must have been a killer.  Also
: Bricks are often used for the Sidewalks here at Campus.  I guess this is 
: mostly because we are in NC where they make a lot of bricks.  I really never
: been outside of the Carolina area becept to visit family in Maryland
: so my viewpoint is kind of skewed.

 It may be best not to mention 'labor', we wouldn't want to start the 
socialists/capitalist thing on this thread.  
 We have some brick structures here also, but there is not as much clay
to use in making cheap bricks. Anyway, the idea of designing a robot
mason might work out well.  At the least it would be messy and fun!
 I was thinking that laying cobble stones would be a good practicle use 
too, except they would have to be fairly uniform. Bricks are a fairly
universal concept, except for size. That would make for a world demand
and might have some space applications too. There is some work being 
done with lunar regolith as a structural material. Robots can eat sunshine
which is easier to find on the moon than any food, so they would be a
natural for building there.  Makes one think....

-- 
Michael S. Miner                         ac343@rgfn.epcc.edu
--
