A Novel Volume Decomposition Methodology for Multi-Robots Collaborative Additive Manufacturing

• Published in: 2020 IEEE 4th Conference on Information & Communication Technology (CICT) pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Manoharan, Madhanagopal, Shridhar, Aditya Navghare, Vinod, Vivek Yadav, Kumaraguru, Senthilkumaran
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 03-12-2020
• Subjects: Additive Manufacturing; AM processes; automobile industries; automobile industry; bonding issue; Co-operative robots; Collision avoidance; CPISL methodology; Direct Energy Deposition processes; dual robot arms; end effectors; equal sub-volumes; extrusion; industrial robots; Intersected Sandwich Layers methodology; Manipulators; Material extrusion; multi-robot systems; multiple Industrial robots; multiple robots; multirobot configurations; multirobots collaborative additive; novel volume decomposition methodology; part printing; part volume; polymer-based Material Extrusion; print complex geometrical features; print time analysis; printed sub-volumes; process speed; productivity; rapid prototyping (industrial); Robot kinematics; Robotics; Robots; Service robots; Software; Trajectory; work allocation; work volume
• DOI: 10.1109/CICT51604.2020.9312088

This work presents a methodology to decompose part volume into sub-volumes for work allocation to multiple robots considering the effect of bonding. The use of Industrial Robots in Additive Manufacturing (AM) increases due to its flexibility to print complex geometrical features with AM processes. Usually, the work volume for multi-robots is decomposed into two equal sub-volumes for allocating the work to multi-robot configurations. The Corrugated Partition for Intersected Sandwich Layers (CPISL) methodology addresses the bonding issue between the printed sub-volumes and enhances the process speed and productivity. From the print time analysis, the sub-volumes obtained with the CPISL methodology take nearly the same time for part printing than sub-dividing the same part into two equal sub-volumes. This technique may find applications for the multiple Industrial robots used in polymer-based Material Extrusion or metalbased Direct Energy Deposition (DED) processes. A unified software interface is developed to control dual robot arms and the extruder attached to its end effector for material extrusion application. This work may be useful to aerospace, defense, construction, and automobile industries for printing large volumes with improved mechanical properties.