Forming Path and Initial Positioning Search for Additive Manufacturing with Dual-Arm Robot

Abstract

In the Additive Manufacturing (AM) method of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), thermoplastic resin is extruded from a nozzle along a forming path generated from a 3D geometric model of the object. FFF software slices the object in a horizontal plane, and arranges support material during the fabrication process if needed. To reduce the support material, Robotic AM using a vertically articulated robot has been studied. Although Robotic AM realizes multi-directional access, its’ motion is affected by singularities. Since most cases of singularities can be avoided by changing the starting point of the work, in this study, a dual-arm robotic AM is proposed to increase possibility. An extrusion nozzle is attached to one arm, and a bed is attached to another arm. The position and orientation of the extrusion nozzle and the bed can have enough degrees of freedom. The best starting position and orientation will be optimized by simulations according to design of experiments. The behavior was confirmed by running the simulation and the actual machine.