[HN Gopher] Robots move Shanghai city block [video]
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Robots move Shanghai city block [video]
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 136 points
Date : 2025-07-03 14:02 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| selimnairb wrote:
| This title is misleading. It makes it seem like the robots did
| this autonomously, when in reality hundreds if workers were
| involved. The "robots" were "smart jacks" I would say. Humans
| couldn't have done this without hydraulic jacks, they used fancy
| hydraulic jacks.
| jayde2767 wrote:
| It is still a very impressive feat of engineering.
| selimnairb wrote:
| Oh, absolutely.
| ddtaylor wrote:
| I was not really lead to believe they did this autonomously. It
| seemed to me like either (a) they were doing the lockstep in a
| pre-programmed way that required timing of the equipment
| working together or (b) the same but with humans operating the
| timing. In either case I find the use of robots impressive.
| mixdup wrote:
| Calling these robots is like calling a wrench a robot
| stevenicr wrote:
| I was expecting to see a few hundred humanoid robots picking
| up things and moving them. Appreciate the comment here as it
| informed me and saved from the click and drain of youtube
| things.
| nottorp wrote:
| Pretty sure it's been done in the past without "AI".
|
| Earliest example on wikipedia seems to be from 1930:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Building_(Indianapolis)
|
| More here:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_relocation
| linsomniac wrote:
| The Indianapolis AT&T building is particularly interesting
| because it was a telephone exchange _AND_ they did the move
| while keeping the exchange in operation.
| https://www.archdaily.com/973183/the-building-that-moved-
| how...
| MSFT_Edging wrote:
| I think it's more the general advancement in the tech. We used
| to do this by jacking up onto large sets of wheeled trucks or
| along rails. The many independent "walking" hydraulic jacks
| walking in unison is the cool part.
|
| We've been moving buildings for 100s of years, its cool to see
| the advances in it.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| This is incredible -- serious question -- has anything of this
| scale been done in the US or Europe? Do we even have the
| technology?
| mmsc wrote:
| Yes, it has been common enough, no "robots" required. The
| Indiana Bell Building is a famous one from a century ago, which
| gets videos posted about it on social media ever so often.
| janfoeh wrote:
| Here is the Kaisersaal in Berlin being moved on air cushions in
| 1996 [1]. And wasn't a better part of Chicago jacked up
| building by building some time in the 19th century to make room
| for a sewage system?
|
| [1] https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/hier-schwebt-ein-
| den...
| quakeguy wrote:
| The Sonic Youth Gig there was awesome ;)
| crooked-v wrote:
| Check out the raising of Chicago
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago). From
| buildings up to entire city blocks were raised, moved on
| rollers, or both, usually while businesses and residents stayed
| in them for normal day-to-day life.
| wenc wrote:
| Chicago also reversed the flow of the Chicago River.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River#Reversing_the_fl.
| ..
|
| They also rebuilt much of the city because it was wiped out
| during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and now the grid
| system is one of the most commonsensical ones in any major
| American city.
|
| Chicago is an example of a (more or less) clean-slate
| engineered large city -- one that arose as a result of
| tragedy (fire) and failure (cholera).
| userbinator wrote:
| _In five days the entire assembly was elevated 4 feet 8
| inches_
|
| At a constant rate that's approximately 1.3 tenths (3.3um)
| per second, definitely far below the threshold for people
| noticing.
| piptastic wrote:
| not quite the same scale area wise, but interesting nonetheless
| https://www.archdaily.com/973183/the-building-that-moved-how...
|
| As for your actual question, I'm pretty sure we (US, Europe,
| humans in general) could do quite a bit more than we do now if
| we had a reason to do so. (or were 100% sure about the results)
| dcrazy wrote:
| In 1930 they moved an entire telephone exchange in Indianapolis
| without even taking it offline:
| https://indianahistory.org/blog/instead-of-moving-mountains-...
|
| The technology in this video appears to be computer control of
| the many pistons underneath the raised block. I would estimate
| that could be done with roughly 1970s-level of technology.
| pxc wrote:
| So the impressive thing is really the social coordination,
| the project management, which was doubtless challenging but
| is hardly unique.
|
| It's still kind of a wonderful, imo. And it's awesome to be
| able to see it on video like this.
| mayneack wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel#Relocation
|
| In the 60s a massive stone monument was moved 200m up in
| elevation to avoid being flooded by a dam.
| foxglacier wrote:
| Not the same scale but the 4-story concrete building The Museum
| Hotel in New Zealand was moved on rails in the 1990's
| https://www.rejigit.co.nz/database/redactor_images/large/689...
|
| Maybe the scale of these other moves were limited by not having
| the adaptable height jacks to keep everything straight.
| slyall wrote:
| Moving single buildings is pretty common
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_relocation
| funkaster wrote:
| lower tech/scale but in Chile (in the island of Chiloe) they
| have been doing this for centuries for individual houses:
| https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moving-houses-of-chilo...
| - although no smart jacks, only bulls and people.
| dluan wrote:
| Something similar but different was back in the early 1900s,
| several city blocks in Seattle were moved or relocated when
| large chunks of the city were blasted away with water to
| flatten it. Although most old buildings were simply demolished.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regrading_in_Seattle
| seabass wrote:
| The town of Kiruna in Sweden is currently being relocated
| because it is sinking into the iron mine that originally led to
| the founding of the town. Some buildings are being relocated on
| tracks in a similar way to that Shanghai video.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/05/why-a-swedish-...
| gbil wrote:
| Back in 1991 a church built in the 1500s was moved on rails at
| Kifissia, Greece. Sure, not the same scale but taking into
| consideration the time it was built, it was a great achievement
|
| Sorry, could only find reference in Greek language but the
| pictures and diagrams are universal :) plus translation options
| are always available https://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/to-
| ekklisaki-pou-xethemelioth...
| orbital-decay wrote:
| Structure relocation is 19th century tech, still as fascinating
| as back then. This was done all over the world, on a much
| bigger scale than a single block. In some US cities in
| particular, and in Moscow they moved entire streets like that,
| with people inside.
|
| It's just expensive and there's no reason to do that unless the
| city is being actively developed, which Shanghai still is, and
| older structures are in the way.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I think the real question is whether we can do it today.
|
| e.g. When NYC expanded its subway system for the first time
| in 50 years in 2017, it cost $2.5 billion per mile. 8-12x
| more expensive than similar projects in foreign cities.
|
| There might be too much regulation and too much cost and too
| many meetings and too many contractors and too much political
| conflict to do many of the feats we did in the 19th and 20th
| century.
| timmb wrote:
| In Romania in the 80s, a number of churches were moved to make
| space for new building projects.
| https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/14/bucharest-mov...
| smusamashah wrote:
| I dont understand this. I always thought houses/buildings have
| underground supports on which the structure is erected. Doesn't
| have to be tall towers, all small buildings have underground
| support too.
|
| How come these buildings don't have any of that? Or is the
| support in form of metal rods which these structures are freely
| screwed to?
| Avicebron wrote:
| I found this because I had a similar question, I think it might
| be hard to gauge how much prep work was done from the video.
|
| https://parametric-architecture.com/shanghai-relocates-7500-...
|
| The houses: https://shanghaistreetstories.com/?page_id=1288
| toast0 wrote:
| It looks like the building was constructed on a concrete slab
| foundation. The slab is poured in the ground, but not anchored
| into it. When it's time to move it, you dig under the slab to
| put in jacks to raise it off of the ground underneath the slab.
| These jacks also can move it a bit at a time.
|
| For smaller buildings, you might jack it up, and put wheels
| under it to move it. For smaller buildings on perimeter
| foundation, you might unbolt it from the foundation to move it,
| and attach it to a newly poured foundation at the new location.
|
| Repairing a sinking foundation is similar... Dig under, lift up
| as needed, fill in under the sinking areas, hopefully with
| something more stable.
|
| Much taller buildings need deeper anchoring. Small buildings on
| sites with difficult soil conditions need deeper anchoring too.
| rendaw wrote:
| And how did they get the robotic legs under there in the first
| place? Once they're in place the walking is cool, but that
| seems like the less impressive part.
| lukaslalinsky wrote:
| From the video, it seems like the houses were cut from the
| original foundation and a huge blocks of concrete was formed
| underneath the houses. Before pouring the concrete, they dug
| under the houses and inserted metal framework for the move,
| that was likely how they lifted the whole thing to insert the
| jacks later on. The process of doing this seems way more
| interesting to me than the final move with these synchronized
| jacks. I'd love more details about that
| tartoran wrote:
| I wish that they showed that part too, the synchronized robo-
| jacks are interesting but the first part seems more
| challenging.
| thenthenthen wrote:
| I just walked passed, it seems they cut the foundation and
| somehow poured a new one underneath? Here are some pics:
| https://ibb.co/yttQQhJ https://ibb.co/KxbM6cnY
| linsomniac wrote:
| Search youtube for "crawl space underpinning" for some
| videos of a residential process.
|
| I'm sure they're doing something more elaborate there,
| but in residential you do this underpinning technique if
| you want to replace or extend your foundation (in my
| case, putting a basement where there is a crawl space),
| where you mark the foundation into 2' segments and label
| them A, B, C. Then you go through and dig/cut out all the
| "A"s, and pour footings and foundations in place, then
| repeat for the Bs and Cs. I'm thinking about doing this
| for my crawl space just to have some more space for
| storage.
| entropie wrote:
| A few years ago they moved a (historic) train station where I
| lived. It needed to be moved for some underground tube
| construction, but also a few meters to make the new buildings
| fit. I witnessed, it was awesome.
|
| https://www.e-architect.com/images/jpgs/leipzig/bayerischer_... /
| https://www.e-architect.com/leipzig/bayerischer-bahnhof-buil...
| RainyDayTmrw wrote:
| This, and the few other famous photos and videos of similar
| operations, confuse me, because it violates my mental model of
| how buildings work. My mental model is that a modern building has
| a large, concrete foundation that extends significantly below the
| ground, and that the foundation is attached to the structural
| frame of the rest of the above-ground building. Then, how can
| jacks, whether manual or robotic, raise a building up off of its
| foundation?
|
| Also, how can they scoot some, but not all, jacks over on any
| given step, and alternate? I understand that rigidity isn't fully
| binary, but I figured that buildings were on the more rigid side.
| incompatible wrote:
| These aren't modern buildings, and they aren't skyscrapers that
| would need significant foundations. The details of the
| foundations would still be interesting. I suppose they got the
| process started by finding or clearing spaces underneath,
| inserting support beams, and jacking them up.
| dluan wrote:
| If anyone is ever in Shanghai and interested in seeing this, it's
| in a very cool area called Fengshengli, where you can see these
| old preserved style warehouse buildings. The area is filled with
| hip breweries, coffee shops, bike shops, art galleries, and
| clothing boutiques, and it's actually not that crowded or busy
| compared to other touristy spots. It's also nicer compared to
| Xintiandi imo, where it feels more produced and fake, like a
| reconstruction as opposed to actual heritage buildings.
|
| Great snapshot of classic Shanghai architecture, blended with
| new, like this really cool coffee spot:
| https://www.archdaily.com/973430/birdie-cup-coffee-fog-archi...
| Animats wrote:
| That's a nice approach. Here's a similar move back in 2020, again
| from the SCMP.[1] This one turned a corner.
|
| The robotic part is that all the lifters have load measurement,
| probably in at least 3 axes, and report stresses to the
| controller. Other ways of moving big structures require getting
| big rigid steel beams underneath to make the building strong
| enough to move. Like these US building moves.[2]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwu4ovaSiQY
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htdVWM42mRg
| joshdavham wrote:
| This reminded me of that classic SpongeBob clip:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyn-0af_hlI
| jffry wrote:
| Here is an article that seems to be the primary source for the
| time-lapses: https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-Latest-
| WhatsNew/20250605/...
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Changing the view of the Bellevue:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I52IwcC3a3c&pp=ygUaTW92aW5nIGJ...
|
| I wonder if humanity in the future will make this a typical part
| of every house so that they can slowly move towards or away from
| water.
| netsharc wrote:
| Hah, people sometimes wonder "This isn't where I parked my car,
| and it's pointing in a different direction", imagine returning
| to a building and its pointing a different direction
| Stevvo wrote:
| There's a great video of the Amish doing this by hand:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc6IT5L3ZSk
| qwertox wrote:
| Reminds me of the Rinsdorf-Talbrucke in Germany, which got
| finished last month.
|
| In order to renovate/rebuild the bridge they first built a new
| half (full lanes) next to the old bridge, collapsed the old
| bridge, then built the other half where the external half of the
| old bridge used to be, and finally moved the previously newly
| built half to join that latter new half, so that the new bridge
| can take the place of the old one, all of this while parts of it
| could still be used for traffic.
|
| It is the kind of "German Engineering" which people used to talk
| about, but sadly our government didn't feel that this was an
| opportunity to do some proper PR. The Chinese have become experts
| at this kind of PR.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iseMMVEEojk&t=23s
| rembal wrote:
| Nothing new, a lot of landmark buildings larger than this were
| moved like this in the 1940s in Warsaw, during post-war
| reconstructions. 80 years ago.
| CommenterPerson wrote:
| This is a tremendous engineering, coordination and public works
| feat.
|
| Using words like "robots" and "AI" shows how much hype has taken
| over the latter two fields, with actual achievements being modest
| in comparison to the hype.
| bitwize wrote:
| In the first episode of _Kyoryu Sentai Juranger_ , the
| inspiration for the first bit of _Mighty Morphin Power Rangers_ ,
| the witch Bandora (Rita Repulsa) appears on Earth riding a flying
| penny-farthing bicycle, and terrorizes the people by shifting a
| bunch of Tokyo skyscrapers around to form her palace.
|
| Seeing the time lapse of that whole city block being moved in one
| lump made me think of that. Very cool.
| codedokode wrote:
| Wikipedia says building were being moved since 19th century. We
| also had a large-scale building relocation during Stalin's Moscow
| Reconstruction (basically, destroying beautiful historical houses
| to expand ancient curvy streets into straight wide roads) - some
| buildings were moved without cutting water supply, electricity
| and even with residents inside [1]. This probably was intended to
| showcase the achievements of Soviet engineering but judging by
| the comments here (and by English Wikipedia article on the topic)
| nobody even remembers this.
|
| Personally I think that there should be no new construction in
| historical areas and there is no need to move anything.
|
| [1] https://www.mos.ru/en/news/item/13744073/
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