Open-Source Software Architecture for Multi-Robot Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)

TL;DR

This paper addresses the limitations of proprietary WAAM software by proposing an open-source, vendor-agnostic software architecture built on Robot Raconteur to unify robots and sensors across different vendors. It presents an end-to-end WAAM workflow from CAD to a printed part, with modular components for part slicing, robot motion planning, part metrology, in-process sensing, and process tuning. The approach enables third-party sensors and cross-vendor integration, demonstrating improvements in tunability and data-driven motion adjustment, albeit with an implementation centered on Motoman and Fronius hardware. The work has practical impact by lowering barriers to customization and wider adoption of WAAM through interoperable, extensible software.

Abstract

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is a metal 3D printing technology that deposits molten metal wire on a substrate to form desired geometries. Articulated robot arms are commonly used in WAAM to produce complex geometric shapes. However, they mostly rely on proprietary robot and weld control software that limits process tuning and customization, incorporation of third-party sensors, implementation on robots and weld controllers from multiple vendors, and customizable user programming. This paper presents a general open-source software architecture for WAAM that addresses these limitations. The foundation of this architecture is Robot Raconteur, an open-source control and communication framework that serves as the middleware for integrating robots and sensors from different vendors. Based on this architecture, we developed an end-to-end robotic WAAM implementation that takes a CAD file to a printed WAAM part and evaluates the accuracy of the result. The major components in the architecture include part slicing, robot motion planning, part metrology, in-process sensing, and process tuning. The current implementation is based on Motoman robots and Fronius weld controller, but the approach is applicable to other industrial robots and weld controllers. The capability of the WAAM tested is demonstrated through the printing of parts of various geometries and acquisition of in-process sensor data for motion adjustment.