Voxel-based sensor placement for additive manufacturing applications

The manufacturing sector is experiencing a transformation to Industry 4.0. authors are researching 3D printable sensors measure operating conditions like wear, strain and temperature, as part of project develop large-scale multi-material extrusion printer print Gravity Separation Spiral—a piece mining equipment that separates minerals from slurry. This paper proposes sensor placement methodology for placing embedded in large printed objects. Voxels, the equivalent 2D pixels, used discretise object an optimisation routine optimally positions into object. objectives during include information gain sensor, ability using robot, discourage being placed important structural locations by penalising these voxels. Finite element analysis employed gain, while robot arm’s manipulability measures capability at each voxel location. integrated kernels, which represented voxels shaped size different weights related intricate traces need be printed. Using weighted objective function best chosen. A simulation environment has been developed simulate printing Matlab do voxel-based calculations identify ideal location placement.