Mobile 3D Printer — Lucas Marques

The Problem

To realize the vision of cooperative 3D printing, we needed a printer that wasn't confined to a box. The challenge was to build a mobile robot capable of carrying a printhead and moving freely across a shared floor space (Cartesian system) with high precision, enabling it to work alongside other robots on indefinite build volumes.

Patent drawing of a mobile 3D printer with omnidirectional wheels — Patent drawing of the mobile printer, featuring omnidirectional wheels.

The Engineering

I developed two revisions of the robot hardware, including custom control circuit boards, the mechanical enclosure, and the firmware. I adapted the open-source Marlin firmware to support omnidirectional wheels for holonomic X-Y movement and implemented a closed-loop control system using optical sensors to track the robot's precise displacement on the floor.

Scalable cooperative mobile 3D printing concept — An illustration of the scalable "swarm" concept, enabling indefinite build volumes through multi-robot cooperation.

Custom mobile 3D printer embedded control system PCB — The custom-designed embedded system controlling the omnidirectional drive and extrusion hardware.

The Results

I built two working prototypes that successfully demonstrated the concept of mobile manufacturing. The design was recognized at the international 3D Pioneers Challenge in Germany, receiving a special mention from Autodesk, and resulted in a patent and a published paper.

Two mobile 3D printers coordinating on a shared build surface — Two mobile robots demonstrating precise multi-agent coordination on a shared build surface.