3-D Printer Robot for Civil Construction: A Bond Graph Approach

In construction industry, the conventional way of construction of buildings is a costly, time consuming and a labour-intensive job. Besides that, many on-site fatalities happen during the construction activity and the climate can delay construction activity. 3-D printer robot resolves all these problems. Also, it can be used for intricate building designs and for construction of buildings in remote locations or in epidemic situations. The objective of the project is to make an autonomous robot for 3-D printing a simple civil structure. Three lead screws will provide the movement in the vertical as well as in horizontal directions and a nozzle connected to the horizontal lead screw will be used for pouring the construction-material layer by layer. Thereafter, structural analysis using Finite Element Method (FEM) has been done on critical parts like lead screw and top plate. Bond graphs for buggy and overall lead screw system have also been used to analyze the response of the system. Furthermore, the wring diagram is also developed and presented in the paper. Future research is required for the development of actual robot for building multi-storied structures, on the design of nozzle and type of material used for pouring.