Commercial 3D printing — or additive manufacturing — is a booming industry. But if printers were liberated from the typical setup involving an immobile box and a gantry, and set free to work in roving, collaborative teams, the AM business might be much bigger with many more applications, including as robotic masons at construction sites and repairing crumbling urban and rural civil infrastructure.

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A multidisciplinary robotics team at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, hosted by NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress and supported by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation , is working to make the concept a reality by designing autonomous systems for 3D printers on robotic arms attached to mobile, roving platforms. Functioning in teams — a concept called collective additive manufacturing (CAM) — these printers, […]

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