China’s robot-built 3D-printed dam ready in 2 years: scientists
- Artificial intelligence at the heart of the project on the Tibetan Plateau will build the structure slice by slice, with no human workers
- When completed the Yangqu hydropower plant will deliver nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year to Henan province
The 180 metre (590 feet) high Yangqu hydropower plant will be built slice by slice – using unmanned excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers, all controlled by AI – in the same additive manufacturing process used in 3D printing.
When completed in 2024, the Yangqu dam will send nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year from the upper reaches of the Yellow River to Henan, the cradle of Chinese civilisation and home to 100 million people.
The power will travel via a 1,500km (932 mile) high voltage line built exclusively for green energy transmission.
According to the project’s lead scientist Liu Tianyun, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology), dam construction and 3D printing are “identical by nature”.
After years of development testing, 3D print technology for large, filled infrastructure had matured enough for mass applications and would “free humans from heavy duty, repetitive and dangerous work”, he said.
