MIT Software for Drone Design

MITCSAIL developed an interactive system for computational design, optimization, and fabrication of multicopters. The computational approach allows non-experts to design, explore, and evaluate a wide range of different multicopters




Project paper in PDF: http://cfg.mit.edu/sites/cfg.mit.edu/files/copter.pdf

Hopefully this software will be open sourced one day. I could not find it online.

Robogami 3D Printable Robots from MITCSAIL

Project research paper:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0278364917723465

Future Fabrication at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms

If you are technology and science nerd you have to see this tour of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms.

This is the place where some amazing tech is being developed for real world application purposes.
You will see some advanced gene editing, micron level 3d imaging, and manipulation, micron level laser cutters, molecular assemblers and nano machines.  


Part 1





Part 2




Some very very cool stuff kids!!!


MIT Center for Bits and Atoms homepage:

http://cba.mit.edu/

Source:

https://youtube.com/user/testedcom

New Rapid Liquid Printing 3D Printing Process from MIT

Very smart people from MIT developed a novel 3d printing process called "Rapid Liquid Printing" where a material is injected into a gelatine cube medium that acts as a support. It increases the speed and you can get complex geometries.

You can see it in this video:





Process description:

In collaboration with Steelcase, we are presenting a new experimental process called Rapid Liquid Printing, a breakthrough 3D printing technology. Rapid Liquid Printing physically draws in 3D space within a gel suspension, and enables the creation of large scale, customized products made of real-world materials. Compared with other techniques we believe this is the first development to combine industrial materials with extremely fast print speeds in a precisely controlled process to yield large-scale products.

3D printing hasn’t taken off as a mainstream manufacturing process for three main reasons: 1) it’s too slow compared to conventional processes like injection molding, casting, milling, etc. 2) it’s limited by scale – although it’s good for creating small components, it’s not possible to produce large scale objects 3) the materials are typically low-quality compared to industrial materials.

Rapid Liquid Printing addresses all of these limitations: it is incredibly fast (producing structures in a matter of minutes), designed for large scale products (you can print an entire piece of furniture) and uses real-world, industrial-grade materials.

It looks interesting as a concept, but practicality is questionable. It takes a lot of gel support material, there are various foces, hard to design geometry due to the medium, the extruder "needle" effects the object geometry, materials need to be easy to separate... Still, it looks very promising for some future advanced applications and bioprinting.

MITs Self-Assembly Lab page:

http://www.selfassemblylab.net/

Detalied article on Dezeen:

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/28/mit-self-assembly-lab-rapid-liquid-printing-technology-produce-furniture-minutes-design/

3D Printed Robotic Shielding with TangoBlack+

Researchers at MITs CSAIL devloped a method that uses standard 3d printer with advanced programmable viscoelastic materials like TangoBlack+ to make shock absorbing skin for robots.

Those 3d printed shielded robots use only 1/250 the amount of energy they transfers to the ground and also allow the robots to land nearly four times more precisely.




Source article with more information:

http://news.mit.edu/2016/3-d-printed-robots-shock-absorbing-skins-1003

Research paper:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/images/3/30/2016_MacCurdy-Printable_Programmable_Viscoelastic_Materials_for_Robots.pdf

Here are their jumping robotic cubes:

MIT Foundry software is amazing, but will it be available to public?

MIT CSAIL scientists developed Foundry CAD / CAM software which they call "Photoshop for 3d printing". It looks amazing with many advanced options.

The main question will be open sourced and available for wider 3d printing community? I strongly support that all software developed by public funding be released under an open source license.
One of the articles claim that the developer, Kiril Vidimče, wants to integrate it  into the workflow of existing CAD systems. We will see ...

Here is a video of Foundry in action:



More information about Foundry:

http://vidimce.org/publications/foundry/

https://news.mit.edu/2016/designing-3-d-printing-foundry-1011

One of the objects designed in Foundry. Foundry news release claims it can be used by novice users also. 

Hydraulic 3D Printed Insectoid Robot

Researchers at MIT CSAIL developed a 3d printing process named "printable hydraulics" where you can 3d print with soft and hard materials at the same time. This creates articulated objects which can move when pressure is applied.
They demonstrated it by 3d printing an insectoid robot that moves when motor and battery is added. Other robotic accessories such as hydraulic grippers can also be 3d printed.

Hydraulic hexapod in action with other flexible parts demonstrated:



Learn more at:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/index.php?title=Printable_Hydraulics

https://news.mit.edu/2016/first-3d-printed-robots-made-of-both-solids-and-liquids-0406

Full paper in PDF format:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/images/7/7c/2016_MacCurdy-Printable_Hydraulics-A_methods_for_fabricating.pdf

Revolutionary MultiFab 3D Printer

MIT CSAIL is an innovation powerhouse and they presented their Multifab 3D printer that can use up to 10 different materials, uses computer vision to adjust operations and can embed objects into prints. It even cost just around 7000 USD. Hopefully the MIT will release some of the designs under open source license.

MultiFab video presentation:




MultiFab description:

We have developed a multi-material 3D printing platform that is high-resolution, low-cost, and extensible. The key part of our platform is an integrated machine vision system. This system allows for self-calibration of printheads, 3D scanning, and a closed-feedback loop to enable print corrections. The integration of machine vision with 3D printing simplifies the overall platform design and enables new applications such as 3D printing over auxiliary parts.

Furthermore, our platform dramatically expands the range of parts that can be 3D printed by simultaneously supporting up to 10 different materials that can interact optically and mechanically. The platform achieves a resolution of at least 40 micrometers by utilizing piezoelectric inkjet printheads adapted for 3D printing. The hardware is low cost (less than $7,000) since it is built exclusively from off-the-shelf components.

The architecture is extensible and modular -- adding, removing, and exchanging printing modules can be done quickly. We provide a detailed analysis of the system's performance. We also demonstrate a variety of fabricated multi-material objects.

MultiFab project homepage:

http://cfg.mit.edu/content/multifab-machine-vision-assisted-platform-multi-material-3d-printing

Detailed paper about MultiFab:

http://cfg.mit.edu/sites/cfg.mit.edu/files/paper.pdf

Fab Forms Give Validity and Manufacturability to Customizable 3D Objects

Geniuses at MIT developed Fab Forms software that enables interactive and customizable design of 3d objects. Designed object can be customized by end user and still remain printable or machinable. Hopefully their code comes to some use in public and not forever lost in academic IP limbo.


Fab Forms description by MIT developer team:

We address the problem of allowing casual users to customize parametric models while maintaining their valid state as 3D-printable functional objects. We define Fab Form as any design representation that lends itself to interactive customization by a novice user, while remaining valid and manufacturable.

We propose a method to achieve these Fab Form requirements for general parametric designs tagged with a general set of automated validity tests and a small number of parameters exposed to the casual user.

Our solution separates Fab Form evaluation into a precomputation stage and a runtime stage. Parts of the geometry and design validity (such as manufacturability) are evaluated and stored in the precomputation stage by adaptively sampling the design space. At runtime the remainder of the evaluation is performed. This allows interactive navigation in the valid regions of the design space using an automatically generated Web user interface (UI). We evaluate our approach by converting several parametric models into corresponding Fab Forms.

Project homepage:

http://cfg.mit.edu/content/fab-forms-customizable-objects-fabrication-validity-and-geometry-caching

MIT High Temperature Glass 3D Printing

MIT developed new high temperature molten glass extruder and 3d printing process. Cool engineering but still very rough objects come out of it.

Project description:

Glass 3D Printing (G3DP)

Additive Manufacturing of Optically Transparent Glass developed by the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with the Glass Lab at MIT.
Ancient yet modern, enclosing yet invisible, glass was first created in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 4,500 years ago. Precise recipes for its production - the chemistry and techniques - often remain closely guarded secrets. Glass can be molded, formed, blown, plated or sintered; its formal qualities are closely tied to techniques used for its formation.

From the discovery of core-forming process for bead-making in ancient Egypt, through the invention of the metal blow pipe during Roman times, to the modern industrial Pilkington process for making large-scale flat glass; each new breakthrough in glass technology occurred as a result of prolonged experimentation and ingenuity, and has given rise to a new universe of possibilities for uses of the material. This show unveils a first of its kind optically transparent glass printing process called G3DP.

G3DP is an additive manufacturing platform designed to print optically transparent glass. The tunability enabled by geometrical and optical variation driven by form, transparency and color variation can drive; limit or control light transmission, reflection and refraction, and therefore carries significant implications for all things glass.

The platform is based on a dual heated chamber concept. The upper chamber acts as a Kiln Cartridge while the lower chamber serves to anneal the structures. The Kiln Cartridge operates at approximately 1900°F and can contain sufficient material to build a single architectural component. The molten material gets funneled through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle.

The project synthesizes modern technologies, with age-old established glass tools and technologies producing novel glass structures with numerous potential applications.
The G3DP project was created in collaboration between the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab, the Mechanical Engineering Department, the MIT Glass Lab and Wyss Institute. Researchers include John Klein, Michael Stern, Markus Kayser, Chikara Inamura, Giorgia Franchin, Shreya Dave, James Weaver, Peter Houk and Prof. Neri Oxman.

Project homepage:

http://matter.media.mit.edu/environments/details/g3dp

Emerging synergy of lasers and 3d printers with real-time scanning and cutting

What is cooler then lasers? Well, lasers and 3d printers combined! duh! At some time at past I have argued on some forums that lasers will become integral parts of 3d printers and I was met with lot of opposition. There have been some attempts to integrate laser based 3d scanners into 3d printers even in commercial products but it is far from wide acceptance.
Yet, adding a laser with sensing electronics can give you so much more then just cheap 3d scanning.

Here is a video by Claudio Di Leo, MIT student, who attached a Infiniter VLM-650-27 line laser to a Solidoodle which uses a 2MP web camera to scan printbed enabling it to 3d print on place object. The entire upgrade costs some 50 USD but increases the ability of the machine.




Now, what would happen if you turn up the power on the laser?

There are several simple DIY laser cutter projects based on replacing the extruder but what if a laser cutter would be a separate tool moving independently?

Here is a video demonstration of laser cutting 3d printed PLA object. As you can see it can be done easily.




Here is a project with detailed guide and software on how to make springs with a laser cutter from different materials but also features PLA 3d printed tube:



Here are detailed instructions for spring laser cutter:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Cut-Helical-Springs/?ALLSTEPS

So, what could we achieve if we integrate active lasers into 3d printers:

1. 3d scanning
2. real-time scanning of print volume for continuous 3d print calibration, sensing failure and continuation of aborted prints
3. 3d printing on objects attached to a print surface
4. laser cutting printed objects giving new dimensions to 3d printed objects
5. "standard" laser cutting of sheet materials, engraving and PCB processing

This could be the next big thing :-)

Design and Fabrication by Example software wants to simplify CAD design

CAD design and 3d model development are not the easiest tasks around if you are a beginner. It takes time and learning effort just to get the results you want. I currently struggle with learning the basics, so I found this article about new software developments.
This software is not yet available to the public bu it demonstrates how design can be facilitated by using 3d model "templates" from a database.
"Fab by Example" was developed by MIT  Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).


From source article:

Even as 3-D printing is poised to help democratize manufacturing, it’s often overlooked that many 3-D-printed items are far too complicated for users to digitally design.
Sure, people can now order 3-D-printed items online, or even make wedding-cake figurines using 3-D-printing services at certain stores. But these are simple, largely standardized products. What if you want a chair or car built to your exact specifications?

Now, a team led by CSAIL researchers has developed “Fab By Example,” the first data-driven method to help people design products, with a growing database of templates that allow users to customize thousands of complex items, such as cabinets, jungle gyms, and go-carts.

“When we design things on a computer, the question arises of how to manufacture them in the real world with the necessary physical parts — wood, glass, screws, hinges, bolts and all,” said project lead Adriana Schulz, a PhD student in CSAIL. “For casual users, creating such a detailed model is not just time-consuming, but it’s actually more or less impossible unless you know something about mechanical engineering.”
Fab By Example’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface lets you mix and match materials — and position, align, and connect the different parts — without worrying if the design is actually feasible.
“The technology allows you to design and fabricate practically any off-the-wall idea that’s bouncing around your head,” Schulz said.

The system, which is not yet available to the public, currently has dozens of distinct template models, each composed of hundreds of parts, down to the individual screws of a go-cart. The models are all “parametric,” meaning that they can be manipulated to take on a nearly infinite number of different shapes. Schulz says that the team’s database of templates is currently meant to be illustrative, and could evolve to include models of cars, houses, or practically any fabricable object.

For a given project, Fab By Example allows you to see what specific parts are needed and how much they cost; you could then order the materials right from the database, with the option to optimize for price or speed-of-delivery. (Currently, you’d still need to assemble the product, but Schulz envisions a future where the database could be tied to an installation service that would send someone to your home to build it.)
Where previous do-it-yourself design databases have required an advanced degree, or at least expertise in computer-assisted design (CAD) software, the team says that now even someone with simple computer skills can make a own customizable item.

The work was developed by Schulz; CSAIL postdocs David I.W. Levin and Pitchaya Sitthi-amorn; Wojciech Matusik, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT; and Ariel Shamir, a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel. The team will be presenting its system at this month’s Siggraph graphics conference.

In the future, Schulz says that the team will be working with CSAIL colleagues to incorporate designs for robots that could be assembled, customized, and even printed from home.

Here is a video of software in action:





... it really looks like it simplifies design process for 3d print or CNC machining , but when will it be released to the public or integrated in other software packages?


More information about the project can be found at:

http://fabbyexample.csail.mit.edu/

PDF paper: http://fabbyexample.csail.mit.edu/fabByExample_preprint.pdf

Source article:  https://www.csail.mit.edu/node/2296

4d printing creepy crawling robots

And they self-assemble too.

From the researchers who brought us Inchworm here comes new self-folding small robotic beast. Sam Felton and colleagues from Harvard and MIT developed this more complex robot that can go from flat to folded and walking in four minutes without any human intervention at all.




Source and more details:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/self-folding-printable-origami-robot

As always, I welcome our new robotic overlord.

See more on 4d printing here:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/06/some-updates-on-4d-printing-and-baking.html

FingerReader is a 3d printable wearable device for visually impaired

The FingerReader is a wearable device that assists in reading printed text. It has a 3d printable housing and it is developed by MIT Media Lab, Fluid Interfaces Group.

It is a tool both for visually impaired people that require help with accessing printed text, as well as an aid for language translation.

Wearers scan a text line with their finger and receive an audio feedback of the words and a haptic feedback of the layout: start and end of line, new line, and other cues. 

The FingerReader algorithm knows to detect and give feedback when the user veers away from the baseline of the text, and helps them maintain a straight scanning motion within the line.
Fingerreader homepage:

http://fluid.media.mit.edu/projects/fingerreader

PDF document about Fingerreader:

http://fluid.media.mit.edu/sites/default/files/FingerReaderFAQ%20%282%29.pdf

For other technologies related to 3d printing to help blind and visually impaired see:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/search/label/blind

Some updates on 4d printing and baking the robots into shape

If you forgot what is 4d printing here is a new overview. Hint: fourth dimension is the time.




Good people from MIT made this robotic forms that move in preassigned forms when exposed to heat. They are also working on self-folding laser-cut materials and present designs for resistors, inductors, and capacitors, as well as sensors and actuators - the electromechanical “muscles” that enable robots’ movements.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/bake-your-own-robot-0530


Harvard has also their technology in the game "Self-assembling Sensors for Printable Machines," by ByungHyun Shin, Samuel M. Felton, Michael T. Tolley, and Robert J. Wood from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, presented at ICRA 2014:



Harvard engineers created a self-assembling lamp whose components are printed, including some of the electronics.
The thing that comes out of the printer (it's a rather special sort of printer) is a flat multi-layer sandwich of shape-memory polymers (they take care of the actual folding, triggered by heat), thin layers of copper, layers of paper and foam for structure, and double-sided tape to keep it all stuck together.

Obviously, not every single part of this lamp was printed. Discrete components like the LED were manually soldered to the composite before folding, and the lamp was wired into an Arduino to get the capacitive touch sensor to properly control the LED.Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/harvard-self-folding-printable-lamp


More related 4d stuff:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/09/skylar-tibbids-talks-about-4d-printing.html

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/04/ted-talk-on-4d-printing.html

MTM Multifab multitool desktop manufacturing machine

MTM Multifab is truly multifunctional desktop manufacturing machine that was very innovative and ground breaking in the field of  DIY 3d printing when it was developed. Ultimaker, very well known and powerful 3d printer,  is based on this machine.
Multifab has several replaceable tool head options:

• MACHINING SPINDLE, A high-speed (20K RPM) spindle supports light subtractive machining. The spindle can be constructed entirely from off-the-shelf compoents.
• VINYL CUTTER, A razor blade tool which allows 2D cutting of sheet material. Some applications are flexible circuit boards, stickers, silkscreen masks, and more.
• REPEATING PIPETTER, This fluid dispensing toolhead was created in collaboration with MIT's Innovations in International Health program, and has uses in automated biology research and disease diagnostics fabrication.
• PLOTTER HEAD, A pen attached to the multifab can allow easy labeling of objects, caligraphy, etc...
• 5 AXIS TRUNNION, This attachment permits 5-axis machining of components on the Multifab. Potential applications include variabl-helix screws, impellers, and 5-sided machining operations.
• PLASTIC EXTRUDER, Based on the Rep-Rap project, this extrusion head will enable additive manufacturing in plastics such as ABS.

MTM Multifab 3d printing

Here are some videos of Multifab in action writing and pipettering:





Demonstration of the MTM Multifab fitted with an auto-pipetting toolhead. The toolhead was designed with Amber Houghstow and Jose Gomez-Marquez of the MIT Innovations in International Health program, with the goal of automating production of XoutTB diagnostic assays. Perhaps it can also find a use in the DIY Bio community.
The MTM Multifab is part of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms Machines That Make project.

Here is overview of Multifabs components, tools and development status:

http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/fabinabox/devmultifab.html

The instructions, plans and BOMs should be available for anyone who wants to build it, but all the files and documents links I tried on the site were broken. I hope it will be repaired soon, the public could benefit greatly with this machine.

Fab-in-a-Box

The Multifab is core machine of FAB in a Box framework system that should provide full digital fabrication environment that user could make at their home from simple parts. It contains:

Infrastructure. All of the key services which allow Fab-in-a-Box to be a cohesive toolset. These include the network, the box itself, power distribution, etc. It consist of the:

1. VIRTUAL MACHINE ENVIRONMENT, The flexible Fab-in-a-Box machine control and interface environment.  
2. THE NETWORK: FABNET, An RS485-based network is the nervous system of the toolset, which connects the "brain" - a laptop running control software - to the tools and sensors comprising Fab-in-a-Box. 
3. THE SUITCASE, The suitcase is the heart of the matter. It is what contains the entire fab in a box project.

Multifab. A computer-controlled multipurpose fabrication tool. Work includes integration into the box, the xyz motion stage, and multiple toolheads to perform various fabrication tasks. Multifab has many subsystems, components and parts:

1. XYZ GANTRY, The key component of the multifab tool is a high-speed and rigid xyz gantry capable of accomodating a wide range of fabrication processes.  
2. 3-AXIS MOTION CONTROL, The multifab gantry is controlled by a networked controller board capable of controlling three stepper motor drivers simultaneously.  
3. H-BRIDGE, This module is able to control the average voltage across a load, such as the spindle's DC motor, using a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).  
4. RC SERVO CONTROLLER, RC servos, typically found in radio controlled airplane models, use feedback to control the position of their output shaft. This controller can set the position of up to 8 servos, and is used in the auto-pipetter toolhead.  
5. MACHINING SPINDLE, A high-speed (20K RPM) spindle supports light subtractive machining. The spindle can be constructed entirely from off-the-shelf compoents.  
6. VINYL CUTTER, A razorblade tool which allows 2D cutting of sheet material. Some applications are flexible circuit boards, stickers, silkscreen masks, and more.  
7. REPEATING PIPETTER, This fluid dispensing toolhead was created in collaboration with MIT's Innovations in International Health program, and has uses in automated biology research and disease diagnostics fabrication.
8. PLOTTER HEAD, A pen attached to the multifab can allow easy labeling of objects, caligraphy, etc... 
9. 5 AXIS TRUNNION, This attachment permits 5-axis machining of components on the Multifab. Potential applications include variabl-helix screws, impellers, and 5-sided machining operations. 
10. 1-AXIS MOTION CONTROL, Additional axes can easily be simultaneously controlled by adding them onto the network. The disadvantage as compared to a multiple-axis controller is increased network load.
11. PLASTIC EXTRUDER, Based on the Rep-Rap project, this extrusion head will enable additive manufacturing in plastics such as ABS.
12. JOG DIAL, The multifab can be positioned by hand using a networked jog dial. This interface can also provide more complex control of parameters typically adjusted on the computer such as feed rate.

Other Fab. All other tools needed to make something. Examples are the soldering iron, hand tools, and programming interfaces.

1. SOLDERING IRON, A soldering iron with temperature adjustment over the network.
2. AUTO BINS, Parts bins which light up to indicate where a needed component is located. This could be part of a computer-assisted-stuffing project.
3. FUME EXTRACTOR, A fume extractor with a ring of LED lights around its intake.
4. IN-CIRCUIT PROGRAMMER, A network-attached microprocessor programmer.
5. NETWORK BOOTLOADER, A bootloader which fetches programs over Fabnet.

Measurement. Networked instrumentation such as a multimeter and oscilloscope. This is one area which will hopefully expand greatly on the road.

1. MULTIMETER, A multimeter which displays and records its readings on the Fab-in-a-Box laptop.
2. OSCILLOSCOPE, An oscilloscope which displays and records its readings on the Fab-in-a-Box laptop.

Autodoc. Everything related to making it possible to document a project "without thought".

1. EYE-FI CAMERA, A camera which wirelessly tranfers its time-stamped images to the Fab-in-a-Box auto-documentation software.
2. RFID READER, Keeping track of which hand tools were used, and when, is made easy with an RFID reader.

Some of the components were never developed, and most of the building related file links can not be opened. Probably all the files are somewhere on the internet, it would be terrible if they get lost forever. I REALLY hope someone publishes them as open source soon.


Here is the Fab-in-a-Box website:

http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/fabinabox/

PDF presentation:

http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/fabinabox/fabinabox.pdf

Making Machines that Make talk by Nadya Peek

Must-watch video if you are interested into DIY, desktop manufacturing machines, hacking, making and generally awesome stuff!

Nadya Peek speaks about the process and basics of making machines that make, technology, digital fabrication economics, MIT modern high-end CNC machines and their limitations, how g-code is very stupid  and how biologists buy expensive machines that are easy and cheap to DIY ...
She also talks and shows many interesting machines that you can make yourself like liquid transfer and auto pipetting machines...



From video description:

Making a new control system for a machine is often a slow and tedious task. Maybe you already have a 3 axis stage, and you already know how to move it around. But what if you want to add a camera and use it for position feedback? You'd have to redesign the whole hardware layer.

I'll talk about some ways I've built modularity into control systems for machines so that you can quickly iterate on different kinds of machine systems without getting stuck in hardware land forever. This includes connecting synchronized nodes across a network and importing legacy nodes for things like, say, an old pressure box you found in the trash and has rs232 in.

Down with gcode! Long live machine control.

You can see her PopFab factory in a briefcase here:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2012/07/popfab-factory-in-briefcase.html

Here is the post about MTM Multifab and Fab-in-a-Box:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/01/mtm-multifab-multitool-desktop.html

Nadya Peeks home page:

http://infosyncratic.nl/

I found one of her presentations which loosely follows the theme of the talk in PDF format:

http://cba.mit.edu/events/13.03.scifab/Peek.pdf

She also spoke about some high end CNC machines being monitored by gyroscope, sensors and GPS so they can not be moved without authorization to prevent them begin exported to blacklisted countries. Here you can see the perfect example of that crazy security policy: http://boingboing.net/2014/01/06/high-end-cnc-machines-cant-b.html


The talk was part of 30th Chaos Communication Congress (30c3) by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) at Congress Centrum Hamburg (CCH)

3d printing blood vessels on a RepRap

Printing blood vessels out of sugar at Uni Pennsylvania lab.


From video description:

Bioengineers have been steadily advancing toward the goal of building lab-grown organs out of a patient's own cells, but a few major challenges remain. One of them is making vasculature, the blood vessel plumbing system that delivers nutrients and remove waste from the cells on the inside of a mass of tissue. Without these blood vessels, interior cells quickly suffocate and die.
Scientists can already grow thin layers of cells, so one proposed solution to the vasculature problem is to "print" the cells layer by layer, leaving openings for blood vessels as necessary. But this method leaves seams, and when blood is pumped through the vessels, it pushes those seams apart.
Bioengineers from the University of Pennsylvania have turned the problem inside out by using a 3D printer called a RepRap to make templates of blood vessel networks out of sugar. Once the networks are encased in a block of cells, the sugar can be dissolved, leaving a functional vascular network behind.
"I got the first hint of this solution when I visited a Body Worlds exhibit, where you can see plastic casts of free-standing, whole organ vasculature," says Bioengineering postdoc Jordan Miller.
Miller, along with Christopher Chen, the Skirkanich Professor of Innovation in the Department of Bioengineering, other members of Chen's lab, and colleagues from MIT, set out to show that this method of developing sugar vascular networks helps keep interior cells alive and functioning.
After the researchers design the network architecture on a computer, they feed the design to the RepRap. The printer begins building the walls of a stabilizing mold. Then it then draws filaments across the mold, pulling the sugar at different speeds to achieve the desired thickness of what will become the blood vessels.
After the sugar has hardened, the researchers add liver cells suspended in a gel to the mold. The gel surrounds the filaments, encasing the blood vessel template. After the gel sets it can be removed from the mold with the template still inside. The block of gel is then washed in water, dissolving the remaining sugar inside. The liquid sugar flows out of the vessels it has created without harming the growing cells.
"This new technology, from the cell's perspective, makes tissue formation a gentle and quick journey," says Chen.
The researchers have successfully pumped nutrient-rich media, and even blood, through these gels blocks' vascular systems. They also have experimentally shown that more of the liver cells survive and produce more metabolites in gels that have these networks.
The RepRap makes testing new vascular architectures quick and inexpensive, and the sugar is stable enough to ship the finished networks to labs that don't have 3D printers of their own. The researchers hope to eventually use this method to make implantable organs for animal studies.
Text by Evan Lerner
Video by Kurtis Sensenig

via: http://go3dprinting.tumblr.com/

http://www.upenn.edu/spotlights/rep-rap-3d-printing-blood-vessel-networks

Update video on FreeD handheld router by MIT

First post:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2012/02/freed-handheld-3d-manufacturing-device.html

Skylar Tibbids talks about 4D printing and Self Assembly lab

I don't get why are they calling it "printing" since there is no printing involved ... maybe it should be named something like "advanced smart interactive shape changing self assembly materials" ... maybe they will print with it in the future .. ya know ... the 4th dimension - time ... cool anyway ...





http://architecture.mit.edu/faculty/skylar-tibbits


http://selfassemblylab.net/