Intelligent Navigation and Obstacle-Aware Fabrication for Mobile Additive Manufacturing Systems
2026-03-26 • Robotics
Robotics
AI summaryⓘ
The authors explain that making customized products quickly is harder if machines stay in one place. They combine 3D printing with mobile robots, called MAMbots, that can move around a factory to print and deliver parts. Their new system links the robot’s movement with printing so it can avoid obstacles and keep printing accurately, even on uneven surfaces. They tested their approach in simulations and real life, showing the robot can adapt to changes and keep printing well in tricky environments.
Additive ManufacturingMobile RobotsNavigationObstacle Avoidance3D PrintingReal-time ControlPath PlanningManufacturing FlexibilityClosed-loop ControlAdaptive Trajectories
Authors
Yifei Li, Ruizhe Fu, Huihang Liu, Guha Manogharan, Feng Ju, Ilya Kovalenko
Abstract
As the demand for mass customization increases, manufacturing systems must become more flexible and adaptable to produce personalized products efficiently. Additive manufacturing (AM) enhances production adaptability by enabling on-demand fabrication of customized components directly from digital models, but its flexibility remains constrained by fixed equipment layouts. Integrating mobile robots addresses this limitation by allowing manufacturing resources to move and adapt to changing production requirements. Mobile AM Robots (MAMbots) combine AM with mobile robotics to produce and transport components within dynamic manufacturing environments. However, the dynamic manufacturing environments introduce challenges for MAMbots. Disturbances such as obstacles and uneven terrain can disrupt navigation stability, which in turn affects printing accuracy and surface quality. This work proposes a universal mobile printing-and-delivery platform that couples navigation and material deposition, addressing the limitations of earlier frameworks that treated these processes separately. A real-time control framework is developed to plan and control the robot's navigation, ensuring safe motion, obstacle avoidance, and path stability while maintaining print quality. The closed-loop integration of sensing, mobility, and manufacturing provides real-time feedback for motion and process control, enabling MAMbots to make autonomous decisions in dynamic environments. The framework is validated through simulations and real-world experiments that test its adaptability to trajectory variations and external disturbances. Coupled navigation and printing together enable MAMbots to plan safe, adaptive trajectories, improving flexibility and adaptability in manufacturing.