Validating Feedback Control to Meet Stiffness Requirements in Additive Manufacturing

This brief discusses the possibility of making an object that precisely meets global structural requirements using additive manufacturing and feedback control. Experimental validation is presented by printing a cantilever beam with a prescribed stiffness requirement. The printing process is formalized as a model-based finite-horizon discrete control problem, where the control variables are the widths of the successive layers. Sensing is performed by making in situ intermediate stiffness measurements on the partially built part. The hypothesis that feedback control is effective in enabling the 3-D-printed beam to meet precise stiffness requirements is validated experimentally.