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#3DStartup: AMBOTS, revolutionising swarm 3D printing
The startup AMBOTS was born out of the AM3 Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. The technology which they use today in their commercial activities was developed there: it is a swarm 3D printing…
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The startup AMBOTS was born out of the AM3 Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. The technology which they use today in their commercial activities was developed there: it is a swarm 3D printing and assembly technology. This technology aims to automate manufacturing with a swarm of smart and autonomous mobile robots to create everyday products, even houses and infrastructures. Just like how a swarm of bees or wasps would work together to build their nests, the swarm of smart mobile robots can work together to print and assemble products based on digital models on demand. The startup is innovative to say the least, so we wanted to meet to discuss their technology and plans for the future!
3DN: Could you introduce yourself and tell us your relationship with 3D printing technologies?
We are AMBOTS, a startup company originated from the research at the University of Arkansas. We are working on a new approach to 3D printing -swarm 3D printing, which employs a swarm of mobile robots to work together for 3D printing and manufacturing. Each robot can be equipped with different printing capabilities (e.g., for printing different materials with different printing resolution) and they are coordinated by software to accomplish the printing job(s) together.
3DN: How did AMBOTS start and what are its first objectives?
AMBOTS started from the AM3 Lab from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. The company was founded in 2018 to commercialize the swarm 3D printing technology. The first objective is to launch a low-cost 3D printing platform for large-format 3D printing.
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