RAVEN: development of a novel volumetric extrusion-based system for small-scale Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Recent technological advances in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and the increasing need in Regenerative Medicine (RM) for devices that better and better mimic native tissues architecture are showing limitations in the current scaffolds fabrication techniques. A switch from the typical layer-by-layer approach is needed to achieve precise control on fibers orientation and pores dimension and morphology. In this work a new AM apparatus, the RAVEN (Robot-Assisted Volumetric ExtrusioN) system, is presented. RAVEN is based on a 7-DOF robotic arm and an FDM extruder and allows for volumetric extrusion of polymeric filaments. The development process, namely the robotic motion optimization, the optimization towards small-scale trajectories, the custom-made hardware/software interfaces, and the different printing capabilities are hereby presented. The successful results are promising towards future advanced applications such as in vivo bioprinting, in which the ability of the robot to change its configuration while printing will be crucial.