Background to the RepRap Project
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-Prototyper.
A universal constructor is a machine that can replicate itself and - in addition - make other industrial products. Such a machine would have a number of interesting characteristics, such as being subject to Darwinian evolution, increasing in number exponentially, and being extremely low-cost.
A rapid prototyper is a machine that can manufacture objects directly (usually, though not necessarily, in plastic) under the control of a computer.
The project described in these pages is working towards creating a universal constructor by using rapid prototyping, and then giving the results away free under the GNU General Public Licence to allow other investigators to work on the same idea. We are trying to prove the hypothesis: Rapid prototyping and direct writing technologies are sufficiently versatile to allow them to be used to make a von Neumann Universal Constructor.
Here is a .pdf
executive summary of the project intended to give the reader a quick overview.
This page contains links to articles and papers written by the
RepRap researchers on the social, economic, and philosophical aspects of the
RepRap project.
How the
RepRap Project came about and what it may mean if it is successful. This paper was written by
AdrianBowyer just before he started the
RepRap project to set out his initial ideas.
This is a reprint of
AdrianBowyer's keynote address on
RepRap at the Seventh National Conference on Rapid Design, Prototyping & Manufacturing, at the Centre for Rapid Design and Manufacture in High Wycombe in June 2006.
The stylistic effects that
RepRap may have on product design and architecture.
--
AdrianBowyer - 26 Jul 2006
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