Daniel Weddle and the Terran Robotics crew out of Bloomington Indiana have made a lot of progress since we saw them last fall. The AI Cob Drone has a formidable wire gantry based sibling who can both bring you your cob mix with its claw AND burnish the earthworks with its 3D printed hammer.
The electric cob mixer is super quiet and energy efficient. It also has forward and reverse gears so no more digging out stuck cob by hand.
I've been experimenting with foamed glass aggregate (Glavel, Poraver, Aero Aggregates) and I'm excited to see Daniel and crew taking it up as well. Lightweight aggregates made of recycled glass make a lot of sense for building strong insulated cob walls.
Daniel also showed me their new R value (thermal conductivity) tester that allows them to test how insulative their mixes are. In a lot of areas with energy codes earthen walls are a non-starter unless we can prove our walls will perform as well as or better than the expensive, highly refined materials we are looking to replace.
Terran Robotics' work is doing a lot to improve the consistency and speed of earthen building, which really helps us compete in the industrial building world. Keep going guys!!
#unclemud #terranrobotics #naturalbuilding #cob #mudrobot
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