The robotics industry is in the midst of a long boom cycle, as industrial robot installations more than doubled over the last decade. Simultaneously, the AI frenzy has driven interest into a host of other subcategories within robotics, with the ever-popular humanoid robotics market gaining the most attention in this context.

While it may yield fewer headlines, agri-robotics looks poised for as much expansion through the next decade as any other robotics market segment. Plus, it could end up having the broadest near-term social impact of any robotics application: in the U.S., for instance, a cluster of factors have resulted in the largest agricultural labor shortages in years.

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry has a major opportunity here, as robotics and agricultural equipment are each historically ripe areas for AM market penetration. In demonstration of that opportunity, 3D People, the UK-based digital inventory service, just released a case study explaining how the company is printing a variety of parts for Dogtooth Technologies, a robotics firm (also based in the UK) specializing in manufacturing strawberry harvesting robots.

At their core, Dogtooth’s 5th generation harvester robots are electric vehicles (EVs), which have been integrated with systems including ‘vision-guided picking arms’ and end effectors. Dogtooth designed the robots to be used in combination with human workers, and the company has meticulously mapped out the expected return-on-investment (ROI) timeline for its own customers.

Dogtooth Technologies turns to 3D People for both prototyping and end-use parts, leveraging 3D People’s experience with both SLS and Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technologies to speed up iteration cycles and improve the cost-efficiency of low-volume orders for bespoke parts. All of this tracks with what Inkbit CEO Davide Marini told me in an interview published a couple of years ago, regarding why the robotics industry is such an ideal market for AM applications:

“Robotics companies tend to be extremely innovative, and unafraid of new technologies. They’re willing to try all sorts of new approaches. Also, in robotics, when you’re talking about volume production, you’re typically not talking about millions, you’re talking about maybe tens of thousands, or a hundred thousand max. Now, this is actually a volume that fits very well with 3D printing.”

That strategic alignment would seem to make robotics companies perfect partners for the AM industry. This is certainly the case with 3D People and Dogtooth: the 3D People case study details how personnel from the service bureau have engaged in on-site work with engineers from the robotics firm, enabling the members from both teams to gain a practical understanding of their counterparts’ perspectives.

As the CTO of Hardware at Dogtooth, Frank Tully, comments in the case study, “We’ve been really pleased with 3D People’s responsiveness and willingness to adapt their processes to AgriTech’s specific needs, from ensuring smooth surfaces for cleanability to improving resistance to chemicals. That collaboration has helped us deliver a better product that meets user needs while balancing the complex demands of a high-tech application.”

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the 3D People/Dogtooth collaboration is the number of different — and different kinds — of parts that the service bureau is printing for the agri-robotics company. In addition to functional prototypes of freshly designed covers for the robotic arm systems, 3D People is also using MJF to produce bespoke wiring guides that protect the electronic components responsible for transmitting data from the arm’s cameras to the robot’s central GPU. Similarly, 3D People is printing nylon lens hoods that protect the cameras themselves.

The standout achievement may be the end effector, which is made using both SLS and MJF. Here, Dogtooth benefited from AM in multiple ways: the company was able to achieve the complex design required to make the picking process work, and also executed the rapid iteration cycle necessary to make that design perform effectively under real-world conditions.

A good AM case study should display how printed parts can solve different challenges with one general solution. 3D People has accomplished that objective concerning the specific parts at-hand, while also spotlighting why AM is such a logical fit for robotics applications more broadly.

We are entering an era where the very nature of human labor as we’ve always known it is being put to the test. Some jobs may disappear altogether, but many will be altered to adapt to the moment via technologies like robotics. In each case, the solution will be slightly different. This is precisely the sort of problem that AM is equipped to solve.

Images courtesy of 3D People