Buzzing factories: Maker bots by NSTRMNT.

Nicknamed A_FAB, these automated manufacturing operatives by NSTRMNT suggest a way past the highly restrictive bed-size issues associated with current 3D printers. Swarms of these bots might crawl over a manufacturing zone adding or subtracting material to the work piece depending on their tooling. These creatures have both a syringe to deposit material, and a routing head to remove it. They have 9 standard servo motors and 7 linear actuators that allow it to work, whilst locomotion is controlled by a further 12 motors. Live data is fed from Firefly and Grasshopper whilst tool paths are also generated from Grasshopper. With technologies like this, there are implications for factories as there would be no reason for a dedicated production line churning out identical products but for small variations. With this paradigm one corner of the factory might be making a car whilst the other was creating a dress. In fact why have a factory at all. Nests of these machines could live in small buildings on the end of a street churning out all the material goods a community needs.   Gratitude to Notcot.