https://spectrum.ieee.org/mobile-3d-printer [ ] IEEE.orgIEEE Xplore Digital LibraryIEEE StandardsMore Sites Sign InJoin IEEE See our latest special report, "Reinventing Invention: Stories From Innovation's Edge" - View - Close bar This Mobile 3D Printer Can Print Directly on Your Floor Share FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER Search: [ ] Explore by topic AerospaceArtificial IntelligenceBiomedicalClimate TechComputing Consumer ElectronicsEnergyHistory of TechnologyRoboticsSemiconductors TelecommunicationsTransportation IEEE Spectrum FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER Topics AerospaceArtificial IntelligenceBiomedicalClimate TechComputing Consumer ElectronicsEnergyHistory of TechnologyRoboticsSemiconductors TelecommunicationsTransportation Sections FeaturesNewsOpinionCareersDIYEngineering Resources More NewslettersPodcastsSpecial ReportsCollectionsExplainersTop Programming LanguagesRobots Guide /IEEE Job Site / For IEEE Members Current IssueMagazine ArchiveThe InstituteThe Institute Archive For IEEE Members Current IssueMagazine ArchiveThe InstituteThe Institute Archive IEEE Spectrum About UsContact UsReprints & Permissions /Advertising / Follow IEEE Spectrum Support IEEE Spectrum IEEE Spectrum is the flagship publication of the IEEE -- the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. 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Learn more about IEEE - Join the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of IEEE Spectrum's articles, archives, PDF downloads, and other benefits. Learn more about IEEE - CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN JOIN IEEESIGN IN Close Access Thousands of Articles -- Completely Free Create an account and get exclusive content and features: Save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders -- all free! For full access and benefits, join IEEE as a paying member. CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN RoboticsNews This Mobile 3D Printer Can Print Directly on Your Floor MobiPrint autonomously maps its environment--then alters it Kohava Mendelsohn 11 Nov 2024 3 min read Kohava Mendelsohn is an editorial intern at IEEE Spectrum. A grid with four photos of 3D printers working directly on a variety of floor surfaces. MobiPrint can 3D print structures directly onto a wide variety of surfaces. MobiPrint Waiting for each part of a 3D-printed project to finish, taking it out of the printer, and then installing it on location can be tedious for multi-part projects. What if there was a way for your printer to print its creation exactly where you needed it? That's the promise of MobiPrint, a new 3D printing robot that can move around a room, printing designs directly onto the floor. MobiPrint, designed by Daniel Campos Zamora at the University of Washington, consists of a modified off-the-shelf 3D printer atop a home vacuum robot. First it autonomously maps its space--be it a room, a hallway, or an entire floor of a house. Users can then choose from a prebuilt library or upload their own design to be printed anywhere in the mapped area. The robot then traverses the room and prints the design. It's "a new system that combines robotics and 3D printing that could actually go and print in the real world," Campos Zamora says. He presented MobiPrint on 15 October at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Campos Zamora and his team started with a Roborock S5 vacuum robot and installed firmware that allowed it to communicate with the open source program Valetudo. Valetudo disconnects personal robots from their manufacturer's cloud, connecting them to a local server instead. Data collected by the robot, such as environmental mapping, movement tracking, and path planning, can all be observed locally, enabling users to see the robot's LIDAR-created map. Campos Zamora built a layer of software that connects the robot's perception of its environment to the 3D printer's print commands. The printer, a modified Prusa Mini+, can print on carpet, hardwood, and vinyl, with maximum printing dimensions of 180 by 180 by 65 millimeters. The robot has printed pet food bowls, signage, and accessibility markers as sample objects. MakeabilityLab/YouTube Currently, MobiPrint can only "park and print." The robot base cannot move during printing to make large objects, like a mobility ramp. Printing designs larger than the robot is one of Campos Zamora's goals in the future. To learn more about the team's vision for MobiPrint, Campos Zamora answered a few questions from IEEE Spectrum. What was the inspiration for creating your mobile 3D printer? Daniel Campos Zamora: My lab is focused on building systems with an eye towards accessibility. One of the things that really inspired this project was looking at the tactile surface indicators that help blind and low vision users find their way around a space. And so we were like, what if we made something that could automatically go and deploy these things? Especially in indoor environments, which are generally a little trickier and change more frequently over time. We had to step back and build this entirely different thing, using the environment as a design element. We asked: how do you integrate the real world environment into the design process, and then what kind of things can you print out in the world? That's how this printer was born. What were some surprising moments in your design process? Campos Zamora: When I was testing the robot on different surfaces, I was not expecting the 3D printed designs to stick extremely well to the carpet. It stuck way too well. Like, you know, just completely bonded down there. I think there's also just a lot of joy in seeing this printer move. When I was doing a demonstration of it at this conference last week, it almost seemed like the robot had a personality. A vacuum robot can seem to have a personality, but this printer can actually make objects in my environment, so I feel a different relationship to the machine. Where do you hope to take MobiPrint in the future? Campos Zamora: There's several directions I think we could go. Instead of controlling the robot remotely, we could have it follow someone around and print accessibility markers along a path they walk. Or we could integrate an AI system that recommends objects be printed in different locations. I also want to explore having the robot remove and recycle the objects it prints. From Your Site Articles * The MiniMaker 3D Printer Wants to Be the EasyBake Oven of 3D Printing > * The World's Largest 3D Metal Printer Is Churning Out Rockets > * 3D Printer Head-to-Head: Reviewing Two 3D Printers Under $300 > Related Articles Around the Web * The Best 3D Printer for 2024 | PCMag > mobile robotsvacuum robots3d printer3d printing Kohava Mendelsohn Kohava Mendelsohn is an editorial intern at IEEE Spectrum. She has a bachelors degree in engineering science with a major in robotics from the University of Toronto and is currently completing her masters in journalism at New York University. 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