Remotely-accessible additive manufacturing systems and methods
A system and method for manufacturing objects in an automated fashion to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of manufacturing technologies. The system may be comprised of one or more web-accessible servers, one or more clients that may communicate with the server, and one or more manufacturing apparatuses that may communicate with one or more clients or servers. The server turns designs into manufacturing instructions using user-specified settings and databases of manufacturing parameters for particular apparatuses and/or manufacturing methods. The system may facilitate communication and revision of designs, manufacturing parameters, or manufacturing instructions between the user and the owner or operator of the manufacturing apparatus. The client may facilitate communication between the server and manufacturing apparatus, may monitor the manufacturing apparatus, and may be physically internal or external to the apparatus.
1. A computer-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processors to configure the one or more processors to:
receive a design comprising a software representation of a physical object;
compare the design to one or more preexisting designs to determine whether the design infringes or has restrictions for use of the design, wherein the one or more processors perform at least one of
compare design metadata;
compare design files;
compare shapes of the design against the preexisting designs directly; and
compare the designs against the preexisting designs by running a potentially weighted volumetric comparison between regions of sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs to determine similarities between the sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs;
translate the design to manufacturing instructions comprising manufacturing steps to manufacture the design; and
transmit the manufacturing instructions to a manufacturing apparatus enabling the manufacturing apparatus to manufacture the design according to the manufacturing instructions.
2. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the transmission of the manufacturing instructions comprises sending the manufacturing instructions to a remote location.
3. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , the instructions further comprising: receiving, from the manufacturing apparatus, manufacturing status, manufacturing apparatus status, or combinations thereof.
4. The computer-readable storage media of claim 3 , wherein the manufacturing apparatus status comprises remaining feedstock measurements, camera signals, temperature data, or combinations thereof.
5. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the manufacturing instructions comprise instructions directed to a combination of additive manufacturing and subtractive manufacturing.
6. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the manufacturing instructions comprise instructions directed to two or more of additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, sintering, infiltration of one or more materials into the physical object, thermal curing, light-catalyzed curing, polishing, surface texturing, painting, or combinations thereof.
7. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the translating comprises:
receiving parameter information comprising one or more of an identification of a desired manufacturing technology, associated apparatus capability parameters, user-specified design parameters, or combinations thereof; and generating manufacturing instructions based at least in part on the received parameter information.
8. A system comprising:
one or more processors;
a translation module executable by the one or more processors to translate a design comprising a software representation of a physical object to manufacturing instructions comprising manufacturing steps to manufacture the design;
a comparison module executable by the one or more processors to compare the design to one or more preexisting designs to determine whether the design infringes or has restrictions for use of the design, wherein the comparison module is further executable by the one or more processors to
compare design metadata;
compare design files;
compare shapes of the design against the preexisting designs directly; and
compare the designs against the preexisting designs by running a potentially weighted volumetric comparison between regions of sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs to determine similarities between the sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs; and
a transmission module executable by the one or more processor to transmit the manufacturing instruction to a manufacturing apparatus enabling the manufacturing apparatus to manufacture the design according to the manufacturing instructions.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the transmission of the manufacturing instructions comprises sending the manufacturing instructions to a remote location for manufacturing.
10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the comparison module compares one or features of the design to one or more features of the one or more preexisting designs, wherein the one or more features comprise one or more of design elements, file name, file owner, file type, file characteristics, design metadata, constructive solid geometry features, volumetric features, surface features, or feature comparisons.
11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the comparison module determines, based at least in part on comparing the design to one or more preexisting designs, whether the design is associated with an owner, contributor designers, a license, a flag, or combinations thereof.
12. A method comprising:
receiving manufacturing instructions representing steps to manufacture a design representative of a physical object from a remote location;
facilitating revision of one or more of the design or manufacturing instructions by one or more parties to at least correct a design defect;
comparing the design to one or more preexisting designs to determine whether the design infringes or has restrictions for use of the design, wherein the comparing further comprises at least one of:
comparing design metadata;
comparing design files;
comparing shapes of the design against the preexisting designs directly; and
comparing the designs against the preexisting designs by running a potentially weighted volumetric comparison between regions of sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs to determine similarities between the sets of shapes of the designs and the preexisting designs;
manufacturing an object, based at least in part on the manufacturing instructions;
removing the object from a manufacturing chamber; and
holding the object in a storage chamber separate from the manufacturing chamber until removed by a validated user.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the facilitating revision comprises: one or more of converting the design or manufacturing instructions to another software representation, or implementing received user revisions.
14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising notifying a user of one or more of a completion of the manufacturing of the object, an error encountered during the manufacturing of the object, via an electronic message to a separate user device.
15. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the compare the design further comprises instructions to configure the one or more processors to perform at least one of:
normalize the designs and preexisting designs to a particular size and orientation according to respective principal axes of moments of inertia.
16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable storage media further comprises instructions to configure the one or more processors to correct a design defect in the design.
17. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors corrects a design defect in the design.