The bridge was installed over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in Amsterdam’s Red Light District and was unveiled today (July 15) by a robot.
The project has been in development since 2015 by Dutch start-up MX3D and uses torch-wielding robot welders for its construction. Researchers from Imperial College London (ICL) will now measure, monitor and analyse the performance of the 12-metre-long structure as it handles pedestrian traffic.
The data collected will enable them to measure the bridge’s ‘health’ in real time, monitor how it changes over its lifespan and understand how the public interacts with 3D-printed infrastructure.
The data from the sensors will be put into a ‘digital twin’ of the bridge – a computerised version which will imitate the physical bridge with growing accuracy in real time as sensor data come in.
The performance and behaviour of the physical bridge will be tested against the twin, which will help answer questions about the long...