Rapid Fusion has introduced an AI 'print assistant' to enhance the performance of its portfolio of robotic additive manufacturing systems.
Base of Build (Bob) is currently being rolled out to a select number of existing customers after eight months of coding, troubleshooting and testing.
Rapid Fusion believes Bob will make the robotic arms of its Apollo and Zeus systems easier to use, with greater operator control and less downtime promised. A pre-loaded knowledge bank is key to the Bob offering, with over 1,000 different printing parameters being factored into its AI language to come up with ‘best-in-class settings' for more than 100 different components.
These settings include 'smart extrusion readiness', which analyses the live temperature across four heating zones with rolling stability windows, and 'material aware intelligence', which sees the AI access complete profiles considering heat deflection temperatures, mould shrinkage, thermal expansion, and mechanical properties for optimal configuration. Meanwhile, a task completion orchestrator operates three-tier intent processing: fast pattern matching for simple commands, AI interpretation accesses comprehensive material databases for complex requests, and advanced contextual understanding ensures accurate execution 'across all scenarios.' There is also an AI temperature command handler that allows users to select appropriate materials, configure multi-zone temperatures, evaluate post-processing requirements, and optimise based on embedded engineering data for the specific application.
Bob is able to work in both secure online/cloud-connected and offline/air-gapped configurations for military or IP-sensitive clients, and is also said to be compatible with the gantry-based Medusa platform launched earlier this year.
“All of our robotic additive manufacturing systems have been built so that we can use artificial intelligence to unleash the full potential of our technology,” said Martin Jewell, Chief Technology Officer at Rapid Fusion. “Having our own AI ‘print assistant’ is a gamechanger and will cut machine downtime and boost efficiency. We’re teaching our systems to understand challenges and different scenarios, which means we can make the user interface more responsive and simpler to embrace – opening it up to all the workforce. In essence, if we can make our systems as ‘plug and play’ as possible it means we will have more adopters.
“It’s feature rich, has a modern user interface, is completely secure and, importantly, has been built for universal integration and agent flexibility, meaning it can be shipped with either an OpenAI-powered agent or a locally hosted AI agent for online/air-gapped use. There’s a massive pre-loaded knowledge based, covering all our products, maintenance guides, troubleshooting and practical print flows. We believe we’ve come up with a ‘true’ additive manufacturing knowledge bible.”
Bob is being made available to Rapid Fusion users in two distinct classifications. A standard offering will be released at the start of 2026 to all users, with upgrades to be sent through the air, while an upgraded offering, in which customers can 'inform and iterate the way Rapid Fusion does things' will be available to trusted partners and universities.
Additive Insight by TCT · #224 'We either innovate or we die.' - Rapid Fusion on its Medusa hybrid manufacturing platform
