Motion planning for a direct metal deposition rapid prototyping system

A motion planning strategy was developed and implemented to generate motion control instructions from solid model data for controlling a robotically driven solid free-form fabrication process. The planning strategy was tested using a PUMA type robot arm integrated into a LENS^TM (Laser Engineered Net Shape) system. Previous systems relied on a series of x, y, and z stages, to provide a minimal coordinated motion control capability. This limited the complexity of geometries that could be constructed. With the coordinated motion provided by a robotic arm, the system can produce three dimensional parts by “writing” material onto any face of existing material. The motion planning strategy relied on solid model geometry evaluation and exploited robotic positioning flexibility to allow the construction of geometrically complex parts. The integration of the robotic manipulator into the LENS^TM system was tested by producing metal parts directly from CAD models