Dive Brief:

• Researchers at Spain's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have demonstrated a team of robot 3-D printers that can move around and over structures to print something bigger than themselves.
• The three-robot team, controlled by a central computer and equipped with sensors and a positioning system, eliminates the problem of a printer needing to be bigger than what it prints.
• The three robots are designated Foundation, Grip and Vacuum, and the latter two can climb the structure to continue printing and drying material after the first has established the base.

Dive Insight:

It's hardly time to stop investing in conventional construction gear, but the robot team takes the idea of 3-D printing of a structure beyond the stage of printing pieces and assembling them. The system would, however, seem to limit architect's materials to what can be liquefied and sprayed into a structure.