Real-time Progress Monitoring System for 3D Printers

Project Title

Real-time Progress Monitoring System for 3D Printers

Project Area of Specialization 3D/4D PrintingProject Summary

3D-printing requires constant human supervision in order to avoid wastage of the material used (filament) or for example, in some cases the overheating of machinery may cause serious damages. The idea is to design a system that can monitor the progress of a 3D print, detect any kind of failure or faults in the process and report the errors to the user or may cancel the job on its own. 

Project Objectives

• Real-time monitoring of the print job through AI and Computer Vision.
• Detection of faults/failure.

Project Implementation Method

The main modules of this project are described below:

• Desktop application for comparing real-time progress of 3d object with the virtual digital progress for failure detection.

We have divided our project into several phases. The details are as follows:

Phase 1:

• Breaking down and understanding of the pre-built software and applications already being used for 3D-printing.
• Understanding the “G-Code” and slicer software to understand layer generation.

Phase 2:

• Detection and Identification of Simple 3D-Objects through an AI camera module.

Phase 3:

• Layer-by-layer real-time comparison of virtual object with the real object being printed on the print bed.
• Identification of failure in the form of distorted object.

Benefits of the Project

This project will open doors for us in new areas of this emerging technology. We will be covering different aspects of AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Digital Image Processing in this project. It will simply create a host of benefits for the manufacturing industry as well as for local or personal usage.Some of those benefits are mentioned below:

• Real-Time Monitoring of Progress of a 3D print job will ensure safe and secure production of 3D-printed parts.
• Timely detection of faults/erros will save a lot of time and material, which would otherwise be wasted if not monitored.
• An automated system for progress monitoring will save the cost of human labour.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

This project will consist of an AI-based system that will ensure the following:

• Layer-by-layer real-time comparison of virtual object with the real object being printed on the print bed.
• Identification of failure in the form of distorted object.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ManufacturingOther IndustriesCore Technology 3D/4D PrintingOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI)Sustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, Partnerships to achieve the GoalRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	43400
3D-Printer	Equipment	1	32000	32000
USB Camera Module	Equipment	3	1000	3000
USB Extension	Equipment	1	800	800
3D-Printer's Filament	Equipment	1	3000	3000
ESP-32	Equipment	1	1100	1100
Documentation(Printing and Binding)	Miscellaneous	3	1000	3000
MicroElectronics(Resistors, LEDs, Buzzers, etc)	Equipment	1	500	500