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February 23, 2024

Robot 'built' in real time using new 3D inkjet printing system

A newly developed 3D inkjet printing system uses computer vision to continuously scan a print surface while adjusting the amount of resin deposited in real time. Here, a robot is "built" layer-by-layer. The black spheres represent the material the printer is depositing, the blue beams represent UV light used to cure the material, and pointing downward from the top are the cameras that scan the procedure and adjust accordingly.

[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant TI 1722000.]

Learn more in the MIT news story This 3D printer can watch itself fabricate objects. (Date of image: 2023; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Feb. 23, 2024)

Credit: Moritz Hocher (available under Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported)

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