Yes, I truly believe that within the next decade a large portion of our electronics will literally be able to roll off the print bed and into use immediately; batteries, electronics and all. Whether this is accomplished via the printing of these components themselves or robotic systems which pick and place components during the print process, we will have to wait and see, but in the meantime one designer who goes by the name of Alex, is already pushing the limits of such technology and innovation.
Using a technique he calls ‘Coprocessing,’ Alex modifies his 3D print jobs mid-print by adding components by hand, then restarts the print job to encapsulate the components into the item he’s fabricating.
“I’ve used coprocessing in the past to generate some pretty fun things, but in my opinion this recent print has been the coolest,” Alex writes on his blog, Printeraction.
For his latest project, Alex set out to create a wheeled robot which literally drives itself off of the printer once it’s complete. The project begins on the build plate of his MakerBot Replicator 3D printer, where the bottom half of the robot is printed along with a covering piece that you will see printing to the right of the main body in the video
“The printed robot is a fully integrated system, and it expands the definition of additive manufacturing and 3D printing to incorporate not just layers upon layers of material, but other systems and components as well,” Alex concludes.
Additional details about this project may be found at Alex’s blog as well as the Thingiverse model page. Let us know if you have ever tried any project similar to this. Discuss in the 3D Printed Robot forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video of the entire project below.