Easy-to-Use 3D Printer for Fabrication of Biological Scaffolds

3D printing is a diverse field, in particular for biological or bioengineering applications. As a result, research teams working in this area are often multidisciplinary. A (bio) 3D printer in this research environment should balance performance with ease of use in order to enable system adjustments and operation for all machine users from a wide range of disciplines. This work presents results in the development of an easy-to-use fabrication system capable of producing rectilinear bone scaffolds. Common motion control problems, which are barriers to ease of use, are addressed and implemented in a way that researchers outside of the controls field could easily understand. A dynamic model of a 3-stage position system for bone scaffold fabrication is presented. Further, control design for a feedforward plus feedback controller and a user-friendly ILC feedforward compensator is outlined. The ability of the (bio) 3D printer to print bone scaffolds and the effectiveness of the control architecture is demonstrated.