A 3D Printing Hexacopter: Design and Demonstration

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel hexacopter drone capable of 3D printing during flight, expanding the potential for building larger and more complex structures with aerial robots.

Contribution

The development of a flying 3D printer using a hexacopter drone, addressing size and mobility limitations of ground-based 3D printing robots.

Findings

Successful initial flight-based 3D printing tests

Feasibility demonstrated for drone-based 3D printing

Lays groundwork for future drone-constructed structures

Abstract

3D printing using robots has garnered significant interest in manufacturing and construction in recent years. A robot's versatility paired with the design freedom of 3D printing offers promising opportunities for how parts and structures are built in the future. However, 3D printed objects are still limited in size and location due to a lack of vertical mobility of ground robots. These limitations severely restrict the potential of the 3D printing process. To overcome these limitations, we develop a hexacopter testbed that can print via fused deposition modeling during flight. We discuss the design of this testbed and develop a simple control strategy for initial print tests. By successfully performing these initial print tests, we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and lay the groundwork for printing 3D parts and structures with drones.