Trajectory Generation for Robotic Additive Manufacturing: A Comparative Study

The integration of robot manipulators into additive manufacturing processes, particularly in fused filament fabrication, presents opportunities to overcome limitations of traditional three-axis systems. By leveraging the additional degrees of freedom, more versatile and efficient manufacturing solutions can be developed. However, this increased complexity introduces new challenges, including the need for trajectory planning that accounts for reachability, singularities, collision avoidance, and material deposition in various build orientations. This study focuses on the development and evaluation of trajectory generation approaches for robotic FFF using an ABB CRB 15000 manipulator. All approaches began with the same G-code input, and tests were conducted both in simulation and on the real robot. The results were analyzed in terms of trajectory accuracy, joint speed and acceleration profiles, parameters influence, and the quality of the printed parts.