A method for facilitating part fabrication, such as by automated toolpath generation, can include one or more of: receiving a virtual part; modifying the virtual part; and/or determining toolpaths to fabricate the target part. The toolpaths preferably define an ordered series of additive and subtractive toolpaths, more preferably wherein the additive and subtractive toolpaths are interleaved, which can function to achieve high manufacturing efficiency and/or performance. The method can additionally or alternatively include: generating machine instructions based on the toolpaths; fabricating the target part based on the machine instructions; calibrating the fabrication system; and/or any other suitable elements.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for setting a working distance of an additive manufacturing system, including: moving a deposition element towards a build surface; detecting, via a contact detection system, a contact between the deposition element and the build surface; stopping the moving of the deposition element in response to detecting the contact between the deposition element and the build surface; and moving the deposition element away from the build surface a determined working distance.

Techniques are described for generating a support structure that connects to a part while avoiding connecting to regions that include one or more less desirable features, such as at edges, corners and/or high detail regions. A computing device may be configured to identify regions of the surface of a part that contain less desirable surface features, and exclude and/or disfavor those regions for connection to a support structure when generating the support structure. In some embodiments, regions containing less desirable surface features can be defined by a user, such as via a graphical user interface displaying a three-dimensional (3D) representation of a part to be fabricated.

Surgical systems, computer-implemented methods, and software programs for generating a milling path for a bone. The implementations involve obtaining a virtual model of the bone, a resection volume defined relative to the virtual model of the bone, and a reference guide defined with respect to the resection volume. Section planes are successively arranged along the reference guide, and each section plane intersects the reference guide and intersects the resection volume. A section path is generated within each section plane and is defined relative to the resection volume. Transition segments are generated to connect section paths of section planes. The milling path is then generated by combining the section paths and the transition segments.

A custom foot orthotic and a system and a method for designing of a custom foot orthotic. The method includes: receiving 3D scan data of the patient's foot; receiving plantar pressure scan data of the patient's foot; establishing a desirable pressure distribution; generating an underfoot elevation profile relative to an elevation profile of the patient's foot in the 3D scan data; determining an internal density profile of the resulting foot orthotic 3D model by superimposing the desirable pressure distribution over the resulting foot orthotic 3D model and reducing or increasing density in regions of the foot orthotic 3D model based on the difference between an expected pattern of support and the desirable pressure distribution; and outputting the 3D model of the custom foot orthotic.

A three-dimensional shaped object manufacturing method includes a first step of acquiring shape data corresponding to a three-dimensional shaped object, a second step of generating, using the shape data, first intermediate data including path information indicating a path along which a depositing unit moves while depositing a shaping material and depositing amount information indicating a depositing amount of the shaping material, a third step of generating second intermediate data by changing the first intermediate data to increase an amount of the shaping material deposited and specifying a gap region interposed between regions where the shaping material is deposited according to the second intermediate data, a fourth step of generating shaping data by changing the first intermediate data or the second intermediate data such that the shaping material is deposited in the specified gap region, and a fifth step of shaping the three-dimensional shaped object according to the shaping data.

In accordance with some embodiments, systems, methods, and media for controlling support structures and build orientation are provided. In some embodiments, a method for additive manufacturing a part using a three dimensional (3D) printing system, the 3D printing system including a print head and a build plate is provided, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of physical constraints associated with the part; optimizing a build orientation of the part to identify an optimized build orientation b* for the part with respect to a design domain defined by the physical constraints based on the plurality of physical constraints, and a plurality of design constraints using at least one variable associated with build orientation as an optimization variable, the plurality of design constraints comprising: an initial build orientation b.sup.0; and a critical surface slope angle and generating a part model based on the optimized build orientation b*.

The present invention includes a method for generating a three-dimensional model of a bone. The method may further include generating a cut plan for excavating a portion of the bone according to the cut plan to allow the insertion of a custom implant. In a particular arrangement, the method may includes excavating the bone with an autonomous extremity excavator utilizing the cut plan generated by a processor. In a further arrangement, the method may include generating a digital model of a custom implant and generating, using the digital model, a physical model sharing the same dimensions as the digital module using manufacturing device.

Applied within an automated robotic manufacturing system that includes additive manufacturing capabilities, methods and enabling devices are disclosed for achieving precise multi-dimension positional alignment among a plurality of diverse took that are involved in collaboratively constructing a solid object. The enabling devices according to various embodiments include an automatically deployed contact sensing probe and a tool center point sensor that detects contact with tools in multiple axes. At least one disclosed method advantageously utilizes both sensing devices in complement.

A robotic fleet management platform includes a resources data store that maintains a fleet resource inventory indicating fleet resources that can be assigned to a robotic fleet and, for each fleet resource, maintenance history, predicted maintenance need, and a preventive maintenance schedule. The platform includes a maintenance management library of fleet resource maintenance requirements for determining maintenance workflows, service actions, and service parts for at least one fleet resource in the fleet resource inventory. The platform calculates predicted maintenance need of a fleet resource based on anticipated component wear and anticipated component failure of the at least one fleet resource according to machine learning-based analysis of the maintenance status data. The platform monitors a health state of the fleet resource based on sensor data. The platform initiates a service action of the at least one item of maintenance for the fleet resource based on the fleet resource maintenance requirements.