TY - JOUR
T1 - Large-scale 3D printing by a team of mobile robots
AU - Zhang, Xu
AU - Li, Mingyang
AU - Lim, Jian Hui
AU - Weng, Yiwei
AU - Tay, Yi Wei Daniel
AU - Pham, Hung
AU - Pham, Quang Cuong
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Ministrer's Office, Singapore under its Medium-Sized Centre funding scheme, Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, and Sembcorp Design & Construction Pte Ltd. The authors would like to thank Y. Qian, B. Panda, W. Lao, Z. Liu, A. Ting, and A. Annapareddy for their helps with the experiment, Prof. S. Qian and Prof. M. Tan for helpful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - Scalability is a problem common to most existing 3D printing processes, where the size of the design is strictly constrained by the chamber volume of the 3D printer. This issue is more pronounced in the building and construction industry, where it is impractical to have printers that are larger than actual buildings. One workaround consists in printing smaller pieces, which can then be assembled on-site. This workaround generates however additional design and process complexities, as well as creates potential weaknesses at the assembly interfaces. In this paper, we propose a 3D printing system that employs multiple mobile robots printing concurrently a large, single-piece, structure. We present our system in detail, and report simulation and experimental results. To our knowledge, this is the first physical demonstration of large-scale, concurrent, 3D printing of a concrete structure by multiple mobile robots.
AB - Scalability is a problem common to most existing 3D printing processes, where the size of the design is strictly constrained by the chamber volume of the 3D printer. This issue is more pronounced in the building and construction industry, where it is impractical to have printers that are larger than actual buildings. One workaround consists in printing smaller pieces, which can then be assembled on-site. This workaround generates however additional design and process complexities, as well as creates potential weaknesses at the assembly interfaces. In this paper, we propose a 3D printing system that employs multiple mobile robots printing concurrently a large, single-piece, structure. We present our system in detail, and report simulation and experimental results. To our knowledge, this is the first physical demonstration of large-scale, concurrent, 3D printing of a concrete structure by multiple mobile robots.
KW - 3D cementitious material printing
KW - Additive manufacturing
KW - Building and construction
KW - Large-scale 3D printing
KW - Multi-robot
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051653808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.004
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85051653808
SN - 0926-5805
VL - 95
SP - 98
EP - 106
JO - Automation in Construction
JF - Automation in Construction
ER -