A Path Planning Method for Robotic Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing of Thin-Walled Structures with Varying Thickness

Abstract

Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a potential technology for manufacturing components with a shorter period of time and by a lower cost. Path planning is a key research interest in WAAM. This paper presents an adaptive path planning method for manufacturing thin-walled structures with varying thickness. Firstly, the straight skeleton, which represents the skeleton of a given geometry, is extracted to express the geometry. Then the deposition with weaving technology is applied to obtain required varied width of the geometry. The resulting adaptive paths are able to fill thin-walled structures with varying thickness less than twice of the single-bead width.