Trajectory planning for 3D printing: A revisit to traveling salesman problem

Abstract

Three dimensional (3D) printing can be used to manufacture many different objects range from toys to hi-tech robot parts. This paper investigates 3D printer trajectory planning to improve the speed of the printing process. The printing speed mainly depends on the motion speed and path of the printing nozzle. We use triangular and trapezoidal velocity profiles to minimize the transition time between print segments. In this work, several algorithms that were originally proposed as solutions for conventional traveling salesman problem are modified to adapt to the new problem. The proposed modifications are designed to obtain time-efficient trajectories for the printing nozzle.