An Approach for Volume Decomposition in Robot-Based Additive Manufacturing

Robot-Based Additive Manufacturing (RBAM) combines material deposition nozzles and robotic manipulators to increase the flexibility of cartesian/delta Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems. RBAM overcomes the traditional limit given by the planarity of the manufacturing layer and allows variable slice thickness to be realized. Also, RBAM enables the deposition of the material in multiple directions. In this context, volume decomposition algorithms are implemented to split a solid into several sub-volumes. Each sub-volume is sliced according to an optimal direction to perform support-free manufacturing and to avoid tool collisions. A novel algorithm for the volume decomposition of a given input geometry is presented. In particular, it allows several planar separation surfaces to be computed that are used to split a general input shape. The surfaces are defined by analyzing overhangs according to an initial slicing direction. The normal of the surfaces identifies the slicing direction of the related sub-volumes. The algorithm steps are iterated to reach the complete removal of overhangs. The approach is tested in some case studies to evaluate its applicability.