Goals
The stated goal of the RepRap project is to produce a pure self-replicating device not 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. From a theoretical viewpoint, the project is attempting to prove the hypothesis that "Rapid prototyping and direct writing technologies are sufficiently versatile to allow them to be used to make a von Neumann Universal Constructor".
The self-replicating nature of RepRap could also facilitate its viral dissemination and may well facilitate a major paradigm shift in the design and manufacture of consumer products from one of factory production of patented products to one of personal production of un-patented products with open specifications. Opening up product design and manufacturing capabilities to the individual should greatly reduce the cycle time for improvements to products and support a far larger diversity of niche products than the factory production run size can support.
Read more about this topic: Rep Rap Project
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