A Simulated 3D Printer in CoppeliaSim

Abstract

Purpose: Now, 3D Printer is becoming popular. Not only used for printing toys but also to print some needful items for prototyping. We go for final production after prototype approval. So the researcher needs a 3D printer for their research. A good 3D printer is not only costly but cumbersome also. Carrying a 3D printer is too much problem. We can use the simulator to continue our research work in this scenario. Here we provide the procedure for building a 3D printer in the simulator. We used Coppeliasim to make it. It is an excellent open-source simulator. It has a good user interface. Following the step, the researcher can build it quickly. All project code and simulator files are available for the researcher in Github. They can download, use and integrate into their project without any issues.

Design/Methodology/Approach: In the CoppeliaSim simulator, we created a 3D printer model. We adopted the Ender 3D printer specification, a popular and economical 3D printer. After completing the model, we add the LUA script associated with the base. Some code is kept as a module inside the project folder for better understanding. After running the simulation, it will draw a square on the work area for the working demonstration.

Findings/Result: We can create a virtual 3D printer through this research work. So without having an actual printer, we can test our written algorithm, try the 3D model file, and understand the functionality of the 3D Printer. It can be integrated into the researcher’s project by customizing some physical parameters or making a different 3D printer model following the procedure described here.

Originality/Value: This research work may add value to the researcher’s work. We provide the information on creating a workable 3D printer as simple as possible in the CoppeliaSim robot simulator. Customizing some physical parameters can be a tool to help the research work rapidly.

Paper Type: Simulation-based Research.