SBIR Phase II: Swarm 3D Printing and Assembly for Autonomous Manufacturing

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to enable a new manufacturing paradigm that can enable long-term autonomy of manufacturing via a proposed swarm 3D printing and assembly (SPA) platform, a method to coordinate robotic assembly. The first envisioned application is the architectural precast construction industry, which suffers from a shortage of skilled labor, long turnover time, and high cost of equipment and operation for making precast molds. This technology will further enable novel cooperative and autonomous manufacturing modalities. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project realizes the cooperation of multiple independent 3D printing and assembly robots. The technical objectives are to improve the current platform, with technical focus areas of: improving the printing speed of individual 3D printers, fully automating material refill and build plate placement, developing planning and scheduling algorithms to support large-scale SPA for multi-job printing, and creating a new calibration method to improve printing quality. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.