A group of researchers at the University of Cambridge have turned consumer 3D printers, including an Ender 3 Pro, into AI-powered, “self-learning” 3D printers and shared the results in a short, tantalizing Reddit post that caught r/3Dprinting’s attention earlier this month, as well as in several research papers.
Now Matta, a startup formed from that computer-aided manufacturing research group, is continuing to develop the technology as Grey-1: an AI “manufacturing co-pilot” that uses machine vision to autonomously correct flow rate, feed rate, hot end temperature, and Z-offset during printing. It works across a wide range of printers and materials, including TPU, carbon-fiber-filled nylon, silicone, and even idiosyncratic substances such as ketchup.
“The system was trained essentially by showing the model different ways that 3D printers can go wrong, and then how these errors can be resolved,” said Douglas Brion, Matta CEO and founder, in an interview with All3DP. “With enough examples and the right algorithms, the system can then learn to recognize what, if anything, is going wrong at any time, and then apply the appropriate correction.”
Brion and the Matta team are currently working on integrating their technology into the slicing process. If successful, Grey-1 would monitor performance during printing, then use that information to automatically adjust slicing settings for future parts.
Though the project is focused on business use cases, the team is also looking into releasing a version of Grey-1 that can run on a Raspberry Pi via OctoPrint and Klipper plugins, which could herald a 3D printing experience that’s truly friendly to the average user.
A community-accessible Grey-1 sounds like it would be a giant leap in the recent trend towards such accessible 3D printers. Major brands appear to be already inching towards this sort of goal – such as Prusa Research with its Nextruder that promises a “perfect first layer” – but we’ve seen nothing so autonomous on the horizon.
For those interested in seeing where such tech could take the future of 3D printing, an interactive demo of Grey-1 is available now on the Matta website. Additionally, Brion’s recent Reddit AMA, where he links to the group’s research papers, sheds a bit more light on the efforts of the Matta team and is definitely worth a read.
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License: The text of "This AI-Powered 3D Printer is “Self-Aware”" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.