B4 - Singh, Prahlad

My Project

I am planning on writing a paper regarding the future of droned construction in the field of Civil engineering. I am planning to look into the current state of the drones and how technology is improving and the direction in which it is heading and what we can hope to achieve in the coming years.

Why it was chosen

After reading one of the blog posts earlier in the term it really caught my curiosity and I wanted to research more into the topic. On reading some more into the topic I found it was very vast and there was a lot of scope for research within the field. Also with me planning on joining the construction field in some capacity, it will be directly involved with what I will be doing on the job in the future, thus it will help me get a better idea on what is yet to come.

Relation to Intelligent Buildings

Intelligent buildings as discussed in class are buildings that are self-sufficient. Drones will, in the future, be operated by AI and once the AI is capable of being fully self-sufficient the building process will be in essence intelligent. As the AI reach its peak we will be able to see buildings being produced from scratch by AI all the way through the construction phase and maybe even the interiors, but there is no saying on when this will be achieved by though.

Challenges

The challenges faced will be the fact of actually reaching the stage of a fully functional AI in term of creating and then constructing a structure without external help. Another challenge I can see is predicting a correct timeline for future inventions and when they will be fully integrated within the construction field.

Comments to others

Mridul: I find this is an interesting topic. Using wireless sensors this will help reduce the chance of injuries also while still providing a sound check up of the structure.

Ksara: I am really interested in your topic. To be honest I never really looked at it like this. It is an interesting notion that even while the two concepts overlap, there is a difference and that they do not in fact promotes the other.

Frank: I am too working on a similar project but the key difference in the papers is while I am focusing on the drones in particular you are looking at all the aspects of the automated construction. This will be interesting as it will provide a different viewpoint to the construction field. Looking forward to reading your paper

B1 New Application in HVAC and Future technologies

New Application in HVAC

Keen Home’s Smart Vents can control airflows for individual rooms. Each vent is embedded with sensors that measure temperature and pressure. All procedures could be easily accessed by using the Keen Home app. The app creates different profiles for individual rooms using various colors with red stands for warmer and blue stands for colder. The users could simply assign profiles to each air vent. For example, if a vent is assigned to the office. The default setting for the office profile would be applied. The vent would be turned on from 9am to 6pm and would be turned off during the rest. If the user decides that he/she wants to work for one extra hour for a day or for a week, he/she could easily adjust the setting through the app. Furthermore, Smart Vents also remember users’ habits and intelligently operate and shut down. Initial studies show this cuts down the run time on air vents by an average of 22%. [1]

Keen Home App

Future Technologies [2]

Here is a list of major future upcoming technologies and some of their applications:

1.     3D printing

·      3D printed replacement teeth. It can print inside the mouth.

·      Scan and 3D printed customized clothing and shoes at retail stores.

·      Trash can be recycled and turned into 3D printing materials.

·      3D printed construction materials and structures.

2.     Virtual/Augmented Reality

·      VR experiences of Theme park rides.

·      Full-length VR movies and live broadcasts of sports games.

·      VR and AR used for education and training purposes.

·      VR tours used for various purposes including real estate

3.     Flying/Driving Drones

·      Fast and efficient deliveries by flying drones.

·      Livestock monitoring drones and building and maintenance inspection drones.

·      Drones provide new view angles for the fire department to find entry point and other natural disaster monitoring. [3]

4.     Driverless cars/Transportation

·      Electric cars occupy major market of automobile industry.

·      Driverless cars used for large facilities such as airports, theme parks, and factories.

·      Charging breakthroughs for the electric cars.

5.     Internet of Things

·      Smart furniture such as smart chairs and smart beds that will self-adjust to provide maximum comfort.

·      Smart mailboxes will send out signals when mail has arrived and indicates how important it is.

6.     Artificial Intelligence (AI)

·      AI selection of movies and music based on users’ preferences and moods.

·      AI solve simple and daily tasks.

Resources:

[1] https://www.wired.com/2015/01/brilliant-air-vents-never-knew-needed/#slide-5

[2] http://www.futuristspeaker.com/business-trends/72-stunning-things-in-the-future-that-will-be-common-ten-years-from-now-that-dont-exist-today/?nocache=1

[3] http://dronelife.com/2016/12/02/2-ways-university-maryland-helps-safety-drones/

Comments

Egla Oori

You listed the technologies used for 3D printing from material extrusion to sheet lamination. Before I saw your blog, I thought that 3D printing would just apply one technology to create subjects. Also, the 3D printing applications in the construction industry are very innovative. The most notable advantage of 3D printing is economy. It’s cheap and efficient to accomplish a large project in a short amount of time. 3D printing will be the future for manufacturing industry and construction industry.

Hayley Selden

The ability to learn is the essential property of artificial intelligence. The learning potential is limitless and AI may become smarter than human in the future. People create AI to better serve human, because AI will easily perform simple tasks without making mistakes. I have one question. Should AI have emotions just like human? Will the emotions do good for human or are they threats?

Rachel Frank

You mentioned there will be job loss as AI develops in the future. However, I think there will always be a new market that creates more job opportunities. For example, there will be AI technicians and other related markets.