Multi-Robot Scan-n-Print for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Robotic Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is a metal additive manufacturing technology offering flexible 3D printing while ensuring high-quality near-net-shape final parts. However, WAAM also suffers from geometric imprecision, especially for low-melting-point metals such as aluminum alloys. In this article, we present a multi-robot framework for WAAM process monitoring and control. We consider a three-robot setup: a 6-DoF welding robot, a 2-DoF trunnion platform, and a 6-DoF sensing robot with a wrist-mounted laser line scanner measuring the printed part height profile. The welding parameters, including the wire feed rate, are held constant based on the materials used, so the control input is the robot path speed. The measured output is the part height profile. The planning phase decomposes the target shape into slices of uniform height. During runtime, the sensing robot scans each printed layer, and the robot path speed for the next layer is adjusted based on the deviation from the desired profile. The adjustment is based on an identified model correlating the path speed to changes in height. The control architecture coordinates the synchronous motion and data acquisition between all robots and sensors. Using a three-robot WAAM testbed, we demonstrate significant improvements of the closed-loop scan-n-print approach over the current open loop result on both a flat wall and a more complex turbine blade shape.