ASBTDC client AMBOTS, Inc. has won a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program. The company will use the Phase II funding to finalize development of its “swarm” three-dimensional printing and assembly robotic platform.
This technology will help manufacturing companies simplify their production processes. Benefits include shorter supply chain, smaller volume, faster turnaround, customized product design, and affordable cost to better serve their customers and stay competitive.
Market Need
“The primary customers we are targeting are the manufacturers of formwork systems for architectural precast,” said Marco Cruz, AMBOTS’ chief marketing officer. “The architectural precast construction industry suffers from a shortage of skilled labor, long turnover time, and high cost of equipment and operation for making precast molds.”
Dr. Wenchau Zhou, AMBOTS’ chief technology officer, explained, “In the long term, we are seeking to develop swarm manufacturing-powered factories that can enable long-term autonomy, which cannot be achieved with existing manufacturing technologies. In the short term, we are seeking to provide an affordable and scalable solution for large-scale 3D printing. This technology will further enable novel cooperative and autonomous manufacturing modalities.”
AMBOTS has participated in several programs to learn about the needs of its customers, such as the NSF Regional I-Corps directed by Dr. Carol Reeves, the Delta I-Fund accelerator, the Fuel accelerator, and NSF National I-Corps.
“We have conducted over 400 customer interviews throughout and after these programs and learned a lot about the needs of the markets and customers,” said Cruz.
The AMBOTS Project Team
The AMBOTS team has been battle-tested throughout the past years in the development of the swarm 3-D printing platform.
Zachary Hyden is serving as the principal investigator and will lead the whole project and mechanical design. Pablo Guerra is the lead robotics engineer for software development and integration of hardware and software. Luke Fowler and Greg Harms are software engineers for the development of front-end software. Joel Parker is an electrical engineer for the development of necessary circuits and electronics.
Zhou and Zhenghui Sha are PIs for the sub-award to the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas at Austin, for the development of scheduling software and for testing the AMBOTS platform. Cruz leads the business development and marketing for commercialization.
“We have been proven to be passionate about and committed to our mission, technically capable in developing necessary tools and technologies towards the vision of swarm manufacturing, and entrepreneurially minded to focus on delivering compelling value proposition for our customers through excellent products and services,” said Zhou.
ASBTDC Assistance
The company is a long-time client of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center. ASBTDC Innovation Specialist Rebecca Todd helped AMBOTS prepare its winning NSF SBIR Phase II application.
“ASBTDC, especially Rebecca, have played a pivotal role throughout the existence of AMBOTS. For the Phase II application, Rebecca provided instrumental help throughout the whole process, including early guidance in the formulation of the proposal, market research for the development of our commercialization plan, and reviewing of the whole application package and responses to the program director’s questions,” said Dr. Zhou.
AMBOTS’ Swarm 3D Printing Platform Solution
The company is developing a swarm 3D printing and assembly, or SPA, platform where 3D-printing robots cooperate with each other to print large-scale objects. This demo video that shows how the 3D SPA platform works.
NSF SBIR Phase I Project Outcomes
With the support of the NSF SBIR Phase I funding, AMBOTS has made great strides towards the commercialization of the SPA technology.
“First, we were able to establish a solid proof of concept on the feasibility of the technology through two major iterations. In the first iteration, we demonstrated a fully functional swarm 3D printing platform with two mobile 3D printers working together to cooperatively print a mounting bracket that was larger than the printers. In the second iteration, we significantly improved the swarm 3D printing platform towards commercialization, which will be the basis for our first commercial product,” Zhou explained.
“Our successful demonstrations of the concept of swarm 3D printing have received worldwide recognition,” Cruz said, adding that AMBOTS was featured on CBS Innovation Nation, named in “The 5 Coolest Things On Earth This Week” by General Electric, and selected as the Startup of the Year by 3dnatives, the largest international online media platform on 3D printing.
“One thing we learned is the importance of customer discovery, which is critical in guiding the development of ideas. In addition, finding and getting support in the community, especially ASBTDC, is very helpful,” he said.
Phase II Project Objectives
“The key objectives for AMBOTS in SBIR Phase II are to continue the development of the swarm 3D printing technology towards a commercial product that can bring a compelling value proposition for our customers, including reducing the equipment and operation cost of the swarm 3D printing platform and improving the key metrics that can meet or surpass the specifications of our customers,” said Zhou.
