Principal investigator: William Nagel
University: Widener University
Industry partner: Cushybots Corporation
Cushybots Industrial creates robotic solutions to humanitarian issues around the world, particularly towards the removal of live personnel in hazardous or dangerous settings. These robotics systems rely heavily on the creation of custom components for the reliable performance of these robotic systems, often utilizing 3D printers both in development and in the manufacturing of their final products. The manufacturing precision of these custom components is essential to improving the capabilities of these robots. For this project, Widener will design, fabricate, and deploy custom 3D printer hardware which will allow for improved printing quality toward this goal of improved manufacturing capabilities. Specifically, this device will increase print precision to the micron and submicron level, without sacrificing the total print time required for high-resolution products, by integrating microactuators to adjust the printer hot end and correct for printer positioning errors as the instrument creates the requested 3D objects.