Automatic Calibration of Robotic 3D Printer Swarms for Cooperative 3D Printing

Owais S., Ratnayake C. O. N., Ugur A., Sha Z., Zhou W.

Machines, vol.14, no.4, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 14 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2026
  • Doi Number: 10.3390/machines14040443
  • Journal Name: Machines
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Keywords: additive manufacturing, cooperative 3D printing, distributed manufacturing, global coordinate system, multi-robot systems, peer-to-peer calibration, robotic additive manufacturing, swarm manufacturing, swarm robotics, vision-based calibration
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Cooperative 3D printing (C3DP) is an additive manufacturing paradigm where a swarm of robotic 3D printers work cooperatively in a shared environment to fabricate continuous parts. Reliable operation requires both accurate per-printer kinematic calibration and cross-printer spatial alignment. This paper presents an automatic vision-based XY calibration workflow for C3DP using ArUco fiducials and low-cost monocular cameras. The method performs intra-printer kinematic calibration and inter-printer alignment through peer-to-peer observations without fixed global infrastructure. In a two-printer Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) testbed, the automatic workflow reduced total calibration time from 157.19 min (manual) to 36.49 min while improving positional consistency and print accuracy. For individual-printer artifacts, the mean Euclidean error was 0.03 ± 0.02 mm, whereas cooperative artifacts exhibited a mean Euclidean error of 0.078 ± 0.002 mm. These results show that practical and repeatable C3DP calibration can be achieved with low-cost vision hardware.