Automated Planning for Robotic Multi-Resolution Additive Manufacturing

Conventional material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) processes require the user to make a trade-off between surface quality and build time of the part. The use of a large bead filament deposition can speed up the build process; however, it leads to surfaces with high roughness due to the stair-stepping effect. The surface quality can be improved by using a small bead filament deposition, which in turn increases the build time of the part. We present a new approach incorporating hybrid multi-resolution layers in material extrusion additive manufacturing to provide excellent surface quality without increasing the build time. Our slicing algorithm generates planar layers with large filament to fill the interior regions in less time. The generated exterior layers are conformal and use small filament to reduce the stair-stepping effect and improve surface quality. We also present a path planning algorithm to build parts with a single manipulator using a multi-nozzle extrusion tool. The path planning algorithm generates a smooth material deposition path by avoiding collision between the tool and the already built layers. It reduces the collision checks and performs collision detection in a computationally efficient manner. We build five parts to validate our approach and illustrate the benefits of multi-resolution AM.