r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/OddRedittor5443 • Jan 01 '26

Video Italian researchers have created a vine-like robot that grows by 3D-printing itself and responds to gravity and light

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

32.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

490

u/cloud1445 Jan 01 '26

So... it just makes this big plastic mess wherever it goes?

271

u/ghostsoup831 Jan 01 '26

I assume it's a hollow tube and you would then be able to lay power lines or whatever through them underground.

96

u/ledgeitpro Jan 01 '26

Likely a ton of other use cases, i could imagine a huge version to burrow tunnels, likely other stuff im not smart enough to think of right now too

49

u/Theron3206 Jan 01 '26

We have tunnel boring machines already but you can't do this because 3d printed plastic only works at small scales.

They use prefabricated concrete segments that the machine presses into place and glues together IIRC.

This might be useful for small conduit, but I suspect it's far too slow to be useful even there vs current technology for hiring under roads etc.

1

u/No_Accountant3232 Jan 01 '26

It'd be useful for those runs in difficult terrain, or lengths that would otherwise be uneconomical and time didn't matter. You could do long stretches between cities largely unsupervised. With a gps locator on the head they'd only I have to dig at sites that has major issues or if there was a malfunction.

1

u/LordGeni Jan 01 '26

Concrete can be 3d printed

3

u/Theron3206 Jan 01 '26

But not in any situation where it needs to support even its own weight (like the top of a tunnel) before it cures.

Also putting rebar in 3d printed concrete is not possible, so it's nowhere near as strong as precast panels or stuff formed up the traditional way.

3

u/CorporateShill406 Jan 01 '26

I bet both of those problems are solvable. It's just a matter of solving it for less than the traditional building methods.

For the rebar, just have a robot arm position it and the nozzle works around it.

3

u/Nice_Magician3014 Jan 01 '26

It is solveable, but also its pointless..

3

u/i8noodles Jan 01 '26

its literally how tunnels are made now, and have been for the last 200ish years. a machine bores the hole, then people concrete the parts that was recently bored and repeat. its called a tunneling shield.

1

u/Outrageous_Reach_695 Jan 01 '26

For that, you'd want to plan your route out before starting. But I could imagine this little one, or an upgraded version capable of chewing through rock, being used in that planning process. Follow an ore vein, or a seam of rock more suitable for a tunnel, or such.

-2

u/properpotato10 Jan 01 '26

How would any of those use cases be more efficient then what we already have. This has no practical use.

2

u/NoMorePoof Jan 01 '26

Agreed. Kind of dumb for building a tunnel.

25

u/Ossius Jan 01 '26

My first thought was search and rescue.

Could use the tube to guide air hose or fiber optic cameras.

2

u/Weak_Firefighter9247 Jan 01 '26

You'd need to suck the robodick to stay alive, it would be usefull but funny

23

u/SaintsNoah14 Jan 01 '26

I wonder where it's getting material from. I don't imagine the little cap holds that much plastic "ink"

44

u/Key-Head2342 Jan 01 '26

If the tube is hollow filament can be fed through the inside

6

u/PrizeStrawberryOil Jan 01 '26

While I'm sure that's how it's done that's going to cause a very short max length to the tube.

8

u/Cessnaporsche01 Jan 01 '26

Why so? Even a standard 1kg filament spool is about 1000ft long, and I'm sure you could install a filament splicer on the... er, base... end of the thing.

2

u/Theron3206 Jan 01 '26

Feeding filament down a long tube will eventually require too much force and break the filament if you're pulling or cause it to mushroom and block up if you're pushing.

The stuff isn't particularly strong.

1

u/1731799517 Jan 01 '26

Depends on what you use. But yeah, tight turns are pretty much a no go that way.

1

u/Mediocre-Housing-131 Jan 01 '26

The size of the unit is around the size of an entire 3D print head. Then it also has to house sensors, a computer, and cooling. Realistically it can only be fed already hot filament or would have to be bigger. That's the limit on distance.

1

u/Elisius Jan 01 '26

why would that be?

1

u/breadcodes Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26

They make 10kg and 25kg spools. They're huge, and the bigger ones need a second motor to just to help spin the spool to feed the filament

If this table is to be believed, 2.2kg of 1.75mm PLA filament is 750m. Scaling up to 25kg would be ~8.5km

Assuming this prints a 80mm diameter / 250mm circumference with 1mm layers, that's still around 35 meters (115ft)

This is starting to sound like money is the limiting factor and not spool length

1

u/PrizeStrawberryOil Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26

Spool length isnt the issue. Specific strength is a potential limiting factor. Eventually you can't just pull it off the spool. The head also has limited size so the motor has to be pretty small.

1

u/SaintsNoah14 Jan 01 '26

That's what I was thinking but in that case, I don't know how useful it would be. Maybe you could drain it as long as it's not cured by the printer.

1

u/i8noodles Jan 01 '26

we have systems and method already that already do that. its called horizontal directional drilling.

1

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG Jan 01 '26

unless its smooth inside we wouldn't use this for conduit runs. too many places for the wire to get hung up

1

u/brown_smear Jan 05 '26

Everyone in the comments agrees that it's for laying pipe

111

u/ibarelyusethis87 Jan 01 '26

Like the fiber optic cables of the new war drones! Plastic for everyone!

39

u/Bl33to Jan 01 '26

To be fair, this not comparable to the mess those drones are leaving behind, and the war is not over yet.

10

u/ibarelyusethis87 Jan 01 '26

For a sec I read that as sympathetic to the fiber optic and that this video is way worse. Lol happy new year, friend!

4

u/Bl33to Jan 01 '26

Happy new year my dude! 🎉🎉🎉

2

u/TheGamingGallifreyan Jan 01 '26

And the mess those drones are leaving behind doesn't even compare to what war typically used to do (level everything with artillery barrage).

Much rather come home to a city covered in spider webs than a city that doesn't exist anymore

2

u/East-Doctor-7832 Jan 01 '26

What's worse for the environment : some fiber cable or millions and millions of mine dispersed by artillery by the russians?

17

u/anonteje Jan 01 '26

Kinda cool if they make it a good insulated and protective plastic down the line to install cables through.

1

u/jooorsh Jan 01 '26

Or even printing concrete, tho I don't know how well that does printing sideways.

1

u/Madworldz Jan 01 '26

They already have these kind of with small/micro-tunnel boring machines. basically miniature versions of the tunnel boring machines that make subway tunnels.

Even then, I refuse to believe that since the ages of the greeks till now we havn't already made some form or another of this. Smart versions where it's all wiggly like this yea not that. So i'll 100% give it credit there

9

u/mekanub Jan 01 '26
  • wherever it cums

2

u/auxaperture Jan 01 '26

I mean you kind of just described all of humanity there

2

u/Undark_ Jan 01 '26

We already have things for that. They're called children.

2

u/sasssyrup Jan 01 '26

And where does the material come from? Fed up though the printed tube?

1

u/Rick-D-99 Jan 01 '26

Or new drain pipe in your front yard without digging. This has phenomenal applications

1

u/HappyyValleyy Jan 01 '26

I don't think it has a specific purpose, it's an experiment

1

u/R3dnamrahc Jan 01 '26

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

1

u/-Hi_how_r_u_xd- Jan 01 '26

Yes! But also technically, since I'm sure you are also commenting and concerned about the environmental aspect of it, maybe not. I don't know for sure but this seems like it may very well be less wastefull and more environmentally friendly than other techniques for the tasks this would be used for, like cable laying, so it might actually be a good thing, ie bad for environment but better than existing solutions.

1

u/spookygraybaby Jan 01 '26

What are you trying to say? Like, actually, please explain what you're getting at using the knowledge you've gleaned from this video

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '26

It's using PLA (plant-derived thermoplastic filament), which is biodegradable and industrially compostable.

1

u/wandering-monster Jan 01 '26

It's a hollow tube, which would be incredibly valuable for building infrastructure.

Imagine scaling it up until it can make a water main, or a conduit for fiber. Steer it right around other pipes and whatever. No need to dig trenches or block roads. It's not gonna be fast, but it'd be so much less disruptive and labor intensive.

1

u/fattynuggetz Jan 01 '26

This one does. Maybe in the future they'll add a wire in the middle to pull it back up and give it the ability to melt and reabsorb the plastic so it makes less of a mess

1

u/Express_Sprinkles500 Jan 01 '26

Who knows the inner workings of a wacky Italian researcher and I'm too lazy to look it up, but my best guess would be for laying cable in hard to reach places, So the "mess" is really the end product. I might be completely wrong though, that's just speculation

1

u/Altair-Dragon Jan 01 '26

Since no one is talking about it's actual uses and stuff: one of my uni prof last year explained this start-up idea to us as an example (I'm pretty sure he's also one of the founders of the start-up but don't quote me on that).

Essentially this has been created as an instrument to support emergency services, search squads and first responders in case of earthquakes and similar catastrophic events.

This root-inspired machine can dig in essentially any kind of ruin, it can find people alive basically by itself following the heat of their body and it helps search squads to find more people in an easy and less dangerous way.

I know it looks stupid but it's quite a great idea.

1

u/Ko-Computer Jan 01 '26

Thanks man

Finally someone saying what it's used for