Integrating a Pellet Extruder with a KUKA Robot
For this project I integrated Massive Dimension’s pellet extruder with a KUKA robot using an IoT approach: the extruder and the robot talk to each other over a UDP connection, so the extrusion can be adjusted in real time while the robot prints.
I developed the ESP32 firmware, a customized OSC (Open Sound Control) interface, and the toolpath integration. Because the extruder speaks OSC, it can be driven from Grasshopper, Blender, or even TouchOSC on a phone — whatever fits the experiment.
Custom Interfaces and Toolpath Integration
The point of the OSC layer is flexibility: instead of baking extrusion values into the toolpath, the interface lets us change flow and speed live, mid-print. That makes the setup useful for experimentation, not just production runs.
Lab Capabilities
This setup expanded our lab’s robotic 3D printing capabilities — large-format plastic printing with real-time control, and a communication pattern (UDP + OSC) we’ve since reused for other tools.
