Kind of hard to explain what this is in my own words, so I'll just quote the wikipedia page:
"The RepRap Project is an initiative aimed at creating a self-replicating machine which can be used for rapid prototyping and manufacturing. A rapid prototyper is a 3D printer that is able to fabricate three dimensional artifacts from a computer-based model. Project authors describe 'self-replication', understood as the ability to reproduce the components necessary to build another version of itself, as one of the goals for the project.
Due to the potential self-replicating ability of the machine, authors envision the possibility to cheaply distribute RepRap units to people and communities, enabling them to create (or download from the internet) complex products and artifacts without the need for expensive industrial infrastructure. They further speculate that the RepRap will eventually demonstrate evolution in this process as well as being able to increase in number exponentially. This, in theory, would give RepRap the potential to become a powerful disruptive technology, similar to that of other anticipated low-cost personal fabrication technologies.
The stated goal of the RepRap project is not to produce a pure self-replicating device for its own sake but rather to put in the hands of individuals anywhere on the planet, for a minimal outlay of capital, a desktop manufacturing system that would enable the individual to manufacture many of the artifacts used in everyday life. The self-replicating nature of RepRap could also facilitate its viral dissemination and may well facilitate a major paradigm shift in the design in manufacture of consumer products from one of factory production of patented products to one of personal production of unpatented products with open specifications. Opening up product design and manufacturing capabilities to the individual should greatly reduce the cycle time for kaizen improvements to products and support a far larger diversity of niche products than the factory production run size can support."
Basically, it's an open source 3-D printer, that in addition to making very low cost manufactured goods, can also make copies of itself... and then be freely distributed and improved upon.
Here's a video of the founder of the project going over everything in greater detail. There's also a great deal more info on the projects homepage.
One of the aspects I liked the most was toward the end of the video lecture, where Bowyer talked about using a starch based chemical as the base for all the machines products. This means that people would be able to grow the raw materials needed for production, and that everything made by the machine made would be bio-degradable.
I'm not sure what to make of this... but if it has the potential to be everything they say, this could be the most important piece of modern technology ever created.
Absolutely, something like this could well be the most important technology ever devised. Right now the machine is nowhere near being 'self replicating' but given time and sustained effort, that may well change. Ultimately if we can achieve such a totally self replicating device it will spell the end of material poverty.
My partner is trying to help on this. A bunch of people are really excited about it. Their hurdle right now is getting the thing to move precisely and smoothly enough to extrude efficiently. We were looking at a gear/screw type thing X3, the manufacturing of it is a little daunting.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but all I see is a neat toy ?
I mean.. "self replicating" certainly sounds cool, but its about as self replicating as a stone hammer.
I certainly don't see how this would end "material poverty". I mean seriously, even if one day this device would be improved to the point where it could build coffee cups, coffee machines, cell phones, cars or whatever, you'd still need to pay the energy, purchase the raw materials, in many cases the IP/design (unless people would start developing open source coffee machines and cars, I admit, an interesting thought ) then assemble the device and it seems highly unlikely to me you would be able to produce anything more cheaply than through industrial production.
And lets not mention the countless objects it will never be able to produce, because they need nanoscale litography (chips), cast iron or similar for strength, rubber hoses, specialized and/or mould injected plastics, fabrics, etc, etc. Seriously, look around you, and think how many objects you could produce in such a machine, even when perfectioned ? Not a whole lot I think.
I see this as a developing element in a general evolution. What the ultimate goal is in my mind, is not so much the RepRap itself, but rather self replicating 'systems'. Getting the RepRap to the point where is can replicate virtually all it's component parts would be a huge step towards getting a system that can replicate essentially all it's parts. Such a fully self replicating system, complete with the robotics for self assembly, would inevitably also be able to create essentially anything else we desire, such as automated mining, smelting and transportation robotics. Obviously technology has some developing to do as yet before we could reach such a point, but there is nothing theoretically insurmountable, it's just a matter of time. Such self replicating machinery exists all around us in nature.
How much time it would take to get to this point is debatable. I personally estimate from my watching of this technology for a very long time, that it will take us another twenty to thirty years. But having gotten there, some rather remarkable things happen to our ability to generate material wealth. A self replicating system can make a copy of itself (though in practice this might take the form of scaling up rather than literal copying). Effectively, what this does is to double the 'capital equipment'. Here's the rub, a self replicating system would be able to double it's capacity in a remarkably short period of time. This means one could make a small investment and in a short period of time, leverage that investment into whatever quantity of manufacturing capacity one needs!
This is what I mean by ending material poverty. In theory, the cost for acquiring the 'means of production' would be so small as to be virtually free.
The "self replicating" aspect may have interesting philosophical consequences (is it alive?), but it has very little practical meaning. If a future "reprap" is able to build items of any value, then it seems quite obvious to me that a specialized industrial production of that same item would always be cheaper, why then have a reprap build it ?
Lets take some futuristic humanoid robot as example. Assume one day we could develop a robot so advanced, that it could build a copy of itself from just a pile of raw materials (I assume you aren't going to let it mine its own resources, or?). Do you think it would make any sense to have it "manually" work on a copy of itself for days, rather than build those robots on an automated assembly line where the cost also is just write off of the assembly plant (/robot), raw materials, energy and time ? Consider the plant is guaranteed able to be more material, time and energy efficient and then an "all round" robot.
Certainly such an advanced robot itself might dramatically reduce costs for all sorts of things (let it build your house for instance) but the fact it could also "reproduce' is not likely of any real significance.
