Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM), in both polymer and metal, has advanced to the point where it can substantially facilitates robot and remote system design and implementation. While AM is not a panacea to fix bad design concepts, properly used AM can creates features and capabilities otherwise not possible in machined or cast products. AM design rules are still being developed and must be applied differently based on the process and purpose of the final component, but progress is being made in practical implementation. Polymer-based AM has been commercially available commercially for quite some time and is regularly used to facilitatefor prototyping and test fitting of parts later to be before they are fabricated fromin metal or to produced in low production quantity parts that do not require high structural strength. Metal printing processes are more diverse than polymer print processes. Both polymer and metal printing systems can be used to make parts or complete systems for robotics. Two implementation examples thato illustrate the possibilities and to identify issues that remain in metal printing are: a dual arm hydraulic manipulator and a distal link of an excavator arm. The dual arm hydraulic manipulator was printed in titanium using an e-beam fusing process. All hydraulics and electrical cabling passageways were printed into the manipulator; there are no external hoses or cables. The distal link of an excavator arm was printed using a wire-fed metal inert gas process. The excavator was then used for digging as part of an equipment exposition validating the structural integrity of the printed part.
