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3D printing has revolutionized product design and manufacturing across various industries by enabling the creation of complex geometries with minimal waste. Despite its advancements, 3D printing still faces significant challenges, including spatial constraints and process control limitations. This paper introduces novel approaches to improve the functionality and precision of material extrusion 3D printers for the fused deposition modeling method, particularly for additional printing tasks such as printing on existing objects or continuing a print on a relocated object without prior knowledge of its position or even the environment is changed. We introduce a compensation system integrating a high-speed vision system for robot arms to address these challenges. Our system employs a three-step pose estimation process—fast point feature histograms (FPFH)-based, corner-based, and sub-pixel edge-based methods—to ensure high accuracy in restoring the position of printed pieces for additional printing tasks on a given object. Experimental results demonstrate substantial improvements in printing precision, with the system achieving sub-millimeter and sub-pixel accuracy. These advancements not only eliminate work area constraints but also enhance the adaptability and reliability of 3D printing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to enhance the flexibility of robots in the manufacturing process to meet the growing demand for flexible manufacturing systems by constructing a dynamic compensation system. The system enables the end effector of the robot to track the trajectory contour on the horizontal plane, even if there is a deviation between the teaching trajectory and the target trajectory contour. The proposed system employs an innovative mechanism design and algorithm that enables dynamic compensation of the robot's absolute position in the XY-plane, even when the end effector is obstructed. The system uses an XY-stage and two industrial cameras, with each axis being separately controlled. To detect and compensate for errors in the end effector and target trajectory, the two cameras are aligned with the X- and Y-direction linear stage, respectively. The cameras are fixed with respect to the linear stage, and the end effector is placed on the stage work surface. Unlike traditional stereo cameras, the cameras in this system do not require calibration for their positional relationship. To verify the system's effectiveness, this study set a group of teaching and target trajectory contours with a maximum deviation of over than 8 mm. Under the compensation of the system, the maximum error between the end effector and the target trajectory contour was 22.8 pixels (1.34 mm), with an average absolute error of 5.4 pixels (0.32 mm). Compared to the maximum error of 8.45 mm before compensation, the error has been reduced by 84 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, with the growing trend of high-mix, low-volume manufacturing, the demand for better flexibility and autonomy without sacrificing the accuracy of industrial robots and human–robot systems has increased. In this paper, a framework based on a coarse-to-fine strategy for industrial robots and human–robot systems is proposed to push the bounds of machine autonomy and machine flexibility while simultaneously maintaining good accuracy and efficiency. Under the proposed framework, industrial robots and human operators are designated to conduct coarse global motion with the aim of implementing low-bandwidth planning-level intelligence. Simultaneously, fine local motion for tackling accumulated on-line uncertainties is realized by an add-on robotic module with the role of implementing high-bandwidth action-level intelligence. Consequently, the overall system for both applications provides good adaptability to uncertain work conditions, while concurrently realizing fast and accurate positioning. A contour following task in two dimensions, simulating simplified tasks in industrial applications (e.g., sealant application, inspection, welding), was implemented and evaluated by autonomous robot control and human–robot collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to enable an industrial robot to realize real-time adaptation to uncertainty, which is generally associated with the issue of machine flexibility of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). A new robotic scheme called dynamic compensation robot with a new high-speed vision system is presented. Under the proposed scheme, a traditional multi-joint industrial robot is designated for fast and coarse global motion, whereas a direct-driven add-on module is realizing local compensation of accumulated uncertainty. 1000 fps image sensing and processing is realized within the new high-speed vision system. Overall latency of high-speed visual feedback was measured to be within 3.0 ms. As an early stage showcase towards flexible manufacturing application, contour tracing of planar target with uncertainty was evaluated. Effectiveness of the proposed method as well as the new high-speed vision was validated by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard dose of imatinib for the treatment of chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is 400 mg/day. Some patients receive reduced doses of imatinib because of serious adverse effects. Recently, the effective plasma threshold for trough imatinib levels was demonstrated to be 1,002 ng/mL. In this study, we evaluated the association of an imatinib dose with trough plasma concentrations and clinical outcomes in 31 patients with chronic-phase CML who were treated at Kumamoto University Hospital. Twenty-seven patients were optimally treated with various doses of imatinib. The mean (+/-SD) trough plasma concentrations of imatinib were 1.40 +/- 0.57 microg/mL in 13 patients receiving 400 mg/day and 1.15 +/- 0.44 microg/mL in 9 patients receiving 300 mg/day as an effective dose. Mean trough levels of the two groups were not significantly different and exceeded the effective plasma threshold. Body surface area (BSA) was significantly smaller in patients receiving the reduced dose compared with those receiving the standard dose (p = 0.001). The effective imatinib dose was associated with age and gender as well as BSA. A reduced dose of 300 mg/day of imatinib may be sufficient for the treatment of CML patients with smaller body size, particularly when intolerability arises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]