Automation during additive manufacturing : a case study for 3D printed smart wearable device

Abstract

The Department on Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) at the University of Malta is leading at the time of writing a research project entitled "A smart user-centered Product Service System for Evaluating and Developing Functional Hand Skills in Children with Cerebral Palsy" (SMARTCLAP). This project is funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) under the Technology Development Programme (TDP) 2019 (project reference no. R&I-2019-003-T). The aim of SMARTCLAP is to design a revolutionary smart wearable device, DigiCLAP which can be worn by children to play a serious game in an Augmented Reality (AR) environment immersing themselves in the game, whilst carrying out habilitation exercises assigned by their occupational therapist. The scope of this dissertation is to develop an automation system during additive manufacturing of this device, to achieve a fully automated manufacturing system. This was carried out by understanding the main functions of the automation system required. Moreover, it was required to develop a few working principles of the automation system required by applying the relevant engineering design tools and methods. The necessary CAD model(s) and engineering drawing(s) of any required fixtures were generated and functionality tests were done. The system was fully automated by the end of this project and verification tests yielded positive results.