| NSF Org: |
ECCS Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 4, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 4, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1547075 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Radhakisan Baheti
ECCS Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $300,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $300,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3124 TAMU COLLEGE STATION TX US 77843-3124 (979)862-6777 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Dept of Mechanical Engineering College Station TX US 77843-3123 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
NANOSCALE: INTRDISCPL RESRCH T, ENG IDR-Eng Interdisciplin Res |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Recent advances in computing, communication and manufacturing technologies promise the possibility of cost-effective production of custom, high quality components especially in medical, energy, aerospace and consumer appliance industry. Custom manufacturing machines operating standalone in kiosks, possibly within home supply stores, operated by a non-technical workforce may enable broad retail customer use. A major challenge to this vision is the high cost of quality loss in the current 3-D printing processes. Breakthrough approaches for quality assurance, similar to what the photocopying sector has achieved, are necessary to deploy custom manufacturing technologies as service kiosks. Unlike in high volume manufacturing, real-time control is essential for deploying custom manufacturing systems as a service. It is unrealistic to design and plan a production process to realize arbitrary geometric features from a wide variety of materials. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project explores real-time control issues at the core of a novel machine tool system for creating custom components from sheet precursors using a sequence of cut-bend-fold (kirigami) operations. A kirigami machine consists of a laser cutter, a robotic arm with a forming tool, and an indexer. It offers significant advantages over the current 3-D printing paradigms for custom manufacturing, as sheet precursors are cheaper and easier to handle, and it takes just minutes versus hours to create complex parts including large lightweight functional components.
The project's approach combines recent advances in CPS, passive wireless sensing, low latency communications and digital image correlation for real-time quality assurance. The sheet precursors will be embedded with thermochromics particles so that as the sheet is being shaped, the particles serve as a swarm of mobile passive sensors whose instantaneous location and distortion are discerned using cameras to estimate the process state (mainly temperature and deformation fields) at unprecedented granularity, and control laws synthesized to tune process parameters and actuator motion to mitigate quality issues. This is a departure from the currently held thoughts on Cybermanufacturing using powder rather than sheet based process, and leverages dynamic CPS based coordination employing novel swarm based sensors instead of static open-loop planning. The novel passive swarm sensing is potentially a huge advancement in disaggregating process variables. The principal investigators will address the challenges associated with placement of cameras to capture information from dynamic sensors, addressing issues such as occlusions, fast prognostication of impending faults, and optimization of control actions using uncertain image data. They are working with a local sheet forming firm to develop a proof of concept machine. Their experiences in Morse theoretic exact kirigami construction of complex geometries, and sheet folding mechanics will be employed to plan kirigami operations and delineate attainable geometries.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project was focused on the scientific and technological challenges in the development of a novel custom manufacturing machine system, somewhat like a photocopier, which is capable of creating functional freeform shell structures (imagine for example a lampshade or a small bookcase) using cut-bend-fold (kirigami) operations on sheet precursors. For low volume custom manufacturing the intelligence comprising all the steps involved in the production process and its continuous monitoring should reside in the real-time service, rather than requiring an upfront costly design process for each product. This issue is similar to what the photocopying industry has dealt with, i.e., how to autonomously monitor the process, dynamically optimize tool motion and process parameters and protect the system in case of a fault (e.g., equivalent of a paper jam) to ensure that the custom part meets specifications.
The scientific and technological advances made, have the potential to allow the general public to unleash their creativity by enabling them to focus on the design aspects, abstracting the manufacturing knowhow into the machine itself.
While the first successful such machine was the 3-D printer, the project was focused on doing for sheet precursors what was done for powders. Namely build a ``printer" that can cut and fold sheets into intricate shapes. We have addressed the primary technological challenges involving the mechanics of folding, the control of the sheet and the laser position and the use of low cost cameras for imaging the part as it is made and then using the information to control the machine. We expect this method to go beyond the laboratory into commerical production since it can be retrofit to any current laser cutter.
The Kirigami system offers considerable advantages for custom manufacturing over conventional powder based 3D printing: A) Safer: sheet precursors are cheaper and easier to handle, B) Faster (minutes vs hours) to create complex parts including large lightweight structurally robust components (e.g., orthotics and furniture) with a variety of prefinished surfaces (e.g., colors, decals, sensors), C) Simpler: a kirigami machine consists of a laser cutter, a robotic arm with single point incremental forming tool, and an indexer.
Last Modified: 12/01/2018
Modified by: Arun R Srinivasa
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