AMBOTS, a spin-off from the AM3Lab at the University of Arkansas, was established with the goal of achieving fully autonomous manufacturing, in contrast to today’s automated but repetitive processes. The company envisions a future where custom-designed products are 3D printed on demand at low cost through a process known as swarm manufacturing. In an interview with 3Druck.com, founder Wenchao Zhou gives an insight into additive manufacturing with mobile 3D printing robots.
AMBOTS believes that the assembly line philosophy, dominant for over a century, cannot meet the needs of fully autonomous, general-purpose on-demand production. Inspired by nature, much like a swarm of bees, the company utilises swarm manufacturing, where mobile manufacturing robots cooperate based on simple digital commands.
Three key pillars differentiate swarm manufacturing from assembly line production: cooperation, mobility, and intelligence. Cooperation unleashes the power of a swarm, simplifying individual machines and enabling parallel production. Mobility allows robots to work together effectively, and intelligence is crucial for autonomous task execution in dynamic environments.
AMBOTS aims to accelerate autonomous manufacturing by addressing these challenges. The company is launching its first product, the modular cooperative 3D printer AMBOTS C1, designed to work in tandem with others. Additionally, they have developed a test platform to demonstrate swarm manufacturing, integrating cooperation, mobility, and intelligence. Future products will further incorporate these technologies.
Interview with Wenchao Zhou
In an interview with 3Druck.com, AMBOTS founder Wenchao Zhou explains the key benefits of swarm 3D printing for the industry and also talks about the practical challenges of implementing this technology in industrial applications.
In your opinion, what are the key benefits of swarm 3D printing for the additive manufacturing industry?
Wenchao Zhou, founder of AMBOTS
From the perspective of manufacturing technologies, swarm manufacturing can provide several potential benefits:
Flexibility and Adaptability: Swarm manufacturing allows robots to dynamically reconfigure for various tasks, materials, and production processes, enabling quick responses to changing demands and customisation without downtime or retooling.
Enhanced Efficiency and Scalability: By enabling parallel processing and optimised task allocation, swarm manufacturing significantly increases production speed and efficiency. The system is scalable, allowing easy expansion by adding more robots to the swarm without major infrastructure changes.
Improved Reliability and Redundancy: Swarm systems are fault-tolerant, with built-in redundancy. If one robot fails, others can take over its tasks, ensuring continuous production and minimising downtime, enhancing overall reliability.
Cost-Effectiveness and Space Optimisation: Utilising smaller, modular robots, swarm manufacturing reduces infrastructure and operational costs. Reconfigurable production setups allow for optimal space utilisation, making the process more cost-effective and efficient.
From a factory perspective, swarm manufacturing can potentially enable what we call general-purpose factories (GPF), in contrast to the special-purpose factories (SPF) we have today since Henry Ford first introduced the assembly line in 1913. This shift addresses several critical challenges:
Supply Chain Security: Unlike SPFs, which create high dependencies and long supply chains, GPFs can quickly adapt to produce new products locally, securing supply chains against disruptions like pandemics or natural disasters.
Decoupling Factory and Product Life Cycles: GPFs allow factories to remain useful beyond a single product’s lifecycle, preserving production capabilities and preventing obsolescence. This adaptability is crucial for maintaining continuity in industries.
Supporting Extraterrestrial Civilisation: For space colonisation, replicating Earth’s complex supply chains is impractical. GPFs can be easily and cost-effectively replicated on other planets, supporting extraterrestrial colonies without extensive reliance on Earth.
A typical GPF consists of basic robotic manufacturing units providing primitive manufacturing capabilities, such as material deposition, energy deposition, assembly, deformation, cleaning, and local atmosphere control. These units can move across the factory floor, reorganising into different groups for various purposes. This intelligent adaptability allows GPFs to adjust their production capabilities to different product dimensions, production capacities, and manufacturing processes by adding or removing units from groups.
Additive manufacturing has continued to develop over the last few years. What innovations or technological breakthroughs do you consider to be particularly important for the advancement of swarm manufacturing with mobile robots?
While traditional manufacturing remains relevant, additive manufacturing will be the cornerstone of swarm manufacturing due to its inherent compatibility with general-purpose, on-demand production. Consequently, any innovations or breakthroughs that improve production capabilities, lower costs, and enhance product quality can be potentially integrated into swarm manufacturing. The following breakthroughs will be particularly important:
Process Innovations: Developing processes that can handle a wide range of materials, including metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, will be crucial.
Software Innovations: Advancements in software that support multi-material, multi-process, and hybrid manufacturing (such as design tools and slicers) will enable more versatile and efficient production.
System Innovations: Innovations that significantly increase printing speed or reduce overall manufacturing time, such as layer-wise printing or advanced post-processing systems, will enhance productivity.
AI Integration: Incorporating artificial intelligence for monitoring and feedback control of the printing process, as well as for prognostics, diagnostics, and self-learning, will improve the product quality, reduce the cost of part qualifications, and enhance production reliability.
What are the practical challenges and limitations of implementing swarm 3D printing in large-scale industrial applications, and how can these be overcome?
Ironically, as history has often shown, a general-purpose technology needs a specific killer application to truly take off. Much like lighting to electricity and email to the Internet, swarm 3D printing or swarm manufacturing in general must find a specific product-market fit to succeed at scale and realise its potential as a general-purpose technology.
Practical Challenges and Limitations
High Initial Costs: The development and deployment of swarm manufacturing systems involve significant initial investments. This includes the cost of advanced robotics, software development, and infrastructure adaptation.
Standardisation: There is currently a lack of standard communication protocols and languages for robots to interact seamlessly. Without standardisation, integrating various robots into a cohesive swarm system is challenging.
Software Complexity: Developing sophisticated software tools for designing products, dividing tasks among robots, and optimising planning and execution is complex and requires significant resources and expertise.
Reliability and Maintenance: Ensuring the reliability and maintaining a swarm of robots in an industrial environment can be daunting, given the potential for mechanical failures and the need for regular maintenance.
Solutions to Overcome Challenges
Focused Initial Applications: To tackle high initial costs and validate the technology, AMBOTS is releasing the AMBOTS C1 at a small scale. This approach allows for validating and refining the technology.
Development of Standards: Collaboration with industry stakeholders to develop and adopt standard communication protocols and languages will facilitate better integration and interoperability of swarm robots.
Advanced Software Tools: Investing in R&D to create advanced software tools that support multi-material, multi-process, and hybrid manufacturing is crucial. These tools should enable intelligent task division and efficient planning and execution of manufacturing jobs.
Robust Maintenance Protocols: Establishing robust maintenance and monitoring protocols, including the use of AI for predictive maintenance, can enhance the reliability and longevity of the swarm manufacturing systems.
By addressing these challenges through targeted strategies and incremental advancements, swarm 3D printing can be effectively scaled up for large-scale industrial applications, ultimately fulfilling its potential as a transformative general-purpose technology.
What impact do you think additive manufacturing will have on different industries and possibly society as a whole in the coming years?
In my view, additive manufacturing (AM) will play a transformative role in shaping human civilisation, given its potential to transform how we design, create, and consume products. Although AM is currently in its early stages, it has already found product-market fits in industries such as prototyping, arts, aerospace, and biomedical, where the manufacturing of complex or customised high-value components on a small scale is essential.
Industry Impact
Aerospace and Biomedical: As AM technology matures, it will deepen its penetration in industries that require complex, high-precision components, leading to innovations in aerospace design and personalised medical products.
Automotive and Consumer Products: With improvements in AM’s scalability and cost-effectiveness, we can expect broader adoption in industries requiring medium to mass-scale production. For instance, the automotive industry will benefit from customised parts and reduced design-to-production times, while consumer products such as shoes and dental products could see significant advancements in customisation and rapid manufacturing.
Emerging Industries: As AM advances, it will penetrate new sectors like furniture, construction, and food. The ability to create bespoke furniture, build complex architectural components on-site, and produce personalised food will revolutionise these industries.
Societal Impact
Localised Production: The widespread deployment of AM technology can establish general-purpose factories globally, enabling localised production. This shift will reduce supply chain complexities, lower transportation costs, and enhance the ability to respond to local market demands swiftly.
Innovation and Customisation: AM facilitates rapid prototyping and innovation, allowing designers and engineers to iterate quickly and bring new products to market faster. The capacity for mass customisation will lead to products tailored to individual needs, enhancing consumer satisfaction.
Economic Growth and Job Creation: The growth of AM technology will spur economic development, creating new industries and job opportunities. Training and education in AM skills will become increasingly important, leading to a workforce adept at leveraging this transformative technology.
