Contour Crafting Process Plan Optimization Part I: Single-Nozzle Case

Contour crafting is an emerging technology that uses robotics to construct free form buildingstructures by repeatedly laying down layers of material such as concrete. the contour craftingtechnology scales up automated additive fabrication from building small industrial parts toconstructing buildings. tool path planning and optimization for contour crafting benefit thetechnology by increasing the efficiency of construction especially for complicated structures.the research reported here has aimed at providing a systematic solution for improving theoverall system efficiency and realizing the contour crafting technology for building customdesignedhouses. in part-i of this paper, an approach is presented to find the optimal tool pathfor the single nozzle contour crafting system. the model developed incorporates the physicalconstraints of the technology as well as some practical construction issues. in part-ii severalalgorithms are presented to find the collision-free tool paths for the multiple-nozzle systembased on the algorithm developed for the single nozzle approach.