TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Materials/Processes

OBJECTIVE: Develop a swarm of micro-robotic fabrication machines that will enable the manufacture of new materials and components. Address the major technical issues in developing these micro-robotic machines, the platform hardware, and the architecture for their communication and control.

DESCRIPTION: Desktop manufacturing is the ability to use a personal computer to drive a miniature fabrication station for the creation of new objects with complex geometry. The manufacturing platform could be a micro-factory that is capable of building high-value components with small dimensions while consuming fewer resources. Its small-scale motivates new and different approaches to the means of production, not just shrinking the equipment size. This topic focuses on a particular approach of using a coordinated and distributed swarm of micro-robots that are capable of handling and manipulating nano- and micron-scale building blocks in the process of synthesizing novel materials and structures. Each micro-robot would perform a specific task, often a single rudimentary task, repeatedly. Collectively, these tasks would be choreographed in purposeful activities for manufacturing. A micro-robot swarm should be able to perform material synthesis and component assembly, concurrently. The micro-robots could be designed to perform basic operations such as pick and place, dispense liquids, print inks, remove material, join components, etc. These micro-robots should be able to move cooperatively within a workspace to achieve highly efficient synthesis and assembly. This behavior should be programmable, in particular, the micro-robotic behavior should be more adaptive as the ability for real-time in-situ sensing increases. The research focus is on the enabling manufacturing technology; however, as a proof-of-concept demonstration, a component of interest will be produced by this technology that highlights its unique capability. Examples of complex material systems of potential interest include but are not limited to: multi-functional materials, programmable materials, metamorphic materials, extreme materials, heterogeneous materials, synthetic materials, etc.

PHASE I: Develop proof-of-concept for manufacturing with distributed micro-robot swarm. Select any complex material system of interest to Navy/DoD, and, based on it, design and develop hardware for task-specific micro-robots and overall desktop manufacturing platform, and software for communication and control algorithms. Develop the architecture for a networked real-time embedded system, i.e., cyber-enabled manufacturing, to design, plan and operate this micro-factory for desktop manufacturing.

PHASE II: Build a micro-robot swarm system that is capable parallel processing in the production the selected complex material system. Demonstrate operation of micro-robotic swarm system in the manufacture of prototype complex material system of interest. Ensure accuracy in material placement, consistency in product quality, and reliability in production.

PHASE III: Transition the micro-robot swarm desktop manufacturing technology to critical military use and the civilian sector. Build marketable manufacturing units and demonstrate the fabrication of test-beds.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: A successful swarm micro-robot desktop manufacturing system would be useful for a variety of commercial applications. Such a manufacturing platform can be used to create super-strong components, ultra-lightweight materials, composite and hierarchical structures, complex part geometries, and/or multi-functional components.

REFERENCES:
1. T. Kuronita, et al. "Swarm Control for Automatic Drilling Operation by Multiple Micro-robots", Proceedings 2001 Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation, Sydney, November 14-15, 2001.

2. Jörg Seyfried, et al. "The I-SWARM Project: Intelligent Small World Autonomous Robots for Micro-manipulation", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005, Volume 3342/2005, 70-83.

KEYWORDS: Micro-robot Swarm, Desktop Manufacturing, Control Algorithms

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.