Previous algorithms for slicing, path planning or trajectory planning of additive manufacturing cannot be used consistently for multidirectional additive manufacturing with pure object manipulation in wire-arc additive manufacturing. This work presents a novel path planning approach that directly takes robot kinematics into account and thus ensures the reachability of all critical path poses. In an additional step, the planned path segments are smoothed so that joint velocity limits are respected. It is shown that the implemented path planner generates executable robot paths and at the same time maintains the process quality (in this case, sufficient coverage of the slice area). While the introduced method enables the generation of reachable printing paths, the smoothing algorithm allows for the execution of the path with respect to the robot’s velocity limits and at the same time improves the slice coverage. Future experiments will show the realization of the real robot setup presented.
The Importance of Critical Path Planning and Scheduling to the Chemical Engineer