ABSTRACT Robotic multi-axis curved layer additive manufacturing has drawn more attention recently owing to its unique ability of printing complex shapes while avoiding the stair-step effect and the usage of support structure. However, as the robotic manipulator is an open serial structure and the printing layer now is no longer planar but a free-form surface, the shape and pattern of a printing path now have a huge impact on the mechanical behaviour of the printer – an arbitrarily planned printing path could cause severe angular fluctuations of the joints of the robotic manipulator which in turn would lead to poor printing quality and prolonged printing time. In this paper, a potential field based algorithm is proposed for automatically generating a printing path for printing an arbitrary free-form curved layer on a robotic multi-axis printer. By considering both the printing efficiency and the joints’ kinematics, the potential field identifies the local optimal feed direction on the curved layer. Then, by employing the iso-cusp height expansion method, a printing path is generated to best fit this potential field. Both computer simulations and physical printing experiments are carried out to assess the proposed methodologies and the results give a positive confirmation on their advantages.

中文翻译：

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一种基于势场的多轴印刷路径生成算法

摘要机器人多轴弯曲层增材制造由于其独特的打印复杂形状的能力，同时避免了阶梯效应和支撑结构的使用，最近引起了更多的关注。然而，由于机器人机械手是一个开放的串行结构，印刷层现在不再是平面而是一个自由曲面，印刷路径的形状和图案现在对印刷机的机械行为有巨大的影响——任意计划的打印路径可能会导致机器人机械手关节的严重角度波动，从而导致打印质量差和打印时间延长。在本文中，提出了一种基于势场的算法，用于在机器人多轴打印机上自动生成用于打印任意自由曲面层的打印路径。通过考虑打印效率和关节运动学，势场确定了弯曲层上的局部最佳进给方向。然后，通过采用等尖点高度扩展方法，生成最适合该势场的打印路径。进行了计算机模拟和物理印刷实验来评估所提出的方法，结果积极证实了它们的优势。