A Mobile Robot Gripper for Cooperative 3D Printing

Cooperative 3D printing is an emerging technology that aims to overcome several limitations of contemporary 3D printing (e.g., print size, cost, complexity) by allowing multiple mobile 3D printers (or printhead-carrying mobile robots) to work simultaneously on a single print job. In particular, one challenge of 3D printing is the inability to incorporate pre-manufactured components in a structure without human intervention. In this paper, we present a mobile robot gripper that can work with other mobile 3D printers to pick and place pre-manufactured components into a 3D printed structure during the printing process. First, we designed a simple gripper using a rack and pinion actuator that can be driven by a single stepper motor like a regular extrusion printhead. Next, a mobile robot gripper is developed with the designed gripper mechanism. Finally, we tested the mobile robot gripper for picking and placing objects using G-code commands. Results show the mobile robot gripper can successfully pick and place pre-manufactured components into a 3D printed structure. This development will potentially enable autonomous hybrid manufacturing that combines 3D printing and traditional manufacturing to improve the quality and capability for manufacturing complex products.