Aerial additive manufacturing with multiple autonomous robots.

Autor: Zhang K; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK.; School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK., Chermprayong P; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Xiao F; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Tzoumanikas D; Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK., Dams B; Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK., Kay S; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Kocer BB; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Burns A; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Orr L; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK.; Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Dübendorf, Switzerland., Alhinai T; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Choi C; Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK., Darekar DD; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Li W; Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK., Hirschmann S; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Soana V; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Ngah SA; Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK., Grillot C; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK.; Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Dübendorf, Switzerland., Sareh S; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Choubey A; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Margheri L; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK., Pawar VM; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK., Ball RJ; Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK., Williams C; Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK., Shepherd P; Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK., Leutenegger S; Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK.; Department of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany., Stuart-Smith R; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK.; Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA., Kovac M; Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK. m.kovac@imperial.ac.uk.; Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Dübendorf, Switzerland. m.kovac@imperial.ac.uk.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2022 Sep; Vol. 609 (7928), pp. 709-717. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Sep 21.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04988-4
Abstrakt: Additive manufacturing methods 1-4 using static and mobile robots are being developed for both on-site construction 5-8 and off-site prefabrication 9,10 . Here we introduce a method of additive manufacturing, referred to as aerial additive manufacturing (Aerial-AM), that utilizes a team of aerial robots inspired by natural builders 11 such as wasps who use collective building methods 12,13 . We present a scalable multi-robot three-dimensional (3D) printing and path-planning framework that enables robot tasks and population size to be adapted to variations in print geometry throughout a building mission. The multi-robot manufacturing framework allows for autonomous three-dimensional printing under human supervision, real-time assessment of printed geometry and robot behavioural adaptation. To validate autonomous Aerial-AM based on the framework, we develop BuilDrones for depositing materials during flight and ScanDrones for measuring the print quality, and integrate a generic real-time model-predictive-control scheme with the Aerial-AM robots. In addition, we integrate a dynamically self-aligning delta manipulator with the BuilDrone to further improve the manufacturing accuracy to five millimetres for printing geometry with precise trajectory requirements, and develop four cementitious-polymeric composite mixtures suitable for continuous material deposition. We demonstrate proof-of-concept prints including a cylinder 2.05 metres high consisting of 72 layers of a rapid-curing insulation foam material and a cylinder 0.18 metres high consisting of 28 layers of structural pseudoplastic cementitious material, a light-trail virtual print of a dome-like geometry, and multi-robot simulations. Aerial-AM allows manufacturing in-flight and offers future possibilities for building in unbounded, at-height or hard-to-access locations.
(© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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