VEGA: A Geometry-Aware Enveloping Layer-Based Path Planning Strategy for Accurate Robotic 3D Printing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing offers extensive design freedom but remains limited by path planning strategies that rely on planar slicing, which introduce staircase artifacts. Non-planar slicing improves local fidelity yet still produces stacking artifacts due to exposed layer boundaries, leaving a gap in capturing complex geometries. This work proposes a Volumetric Envelope Generation Algorithm (VEGA) that generates geometry-aware enveloping layers through a buffering-erosion process. By introducing a Buffer Restraint Region (BRR), the method enables control over incorporation mode and layer positioning. Printability-based splitting further ensures feasible print paths for fabrication. Experiments were conducted on planar- and non-planar-base geometries, printed with a custom 3D printing robot. Printed models were scanned during evaluation, showing reductions of 68.5% in volumetric error, 69.1% in surface deviation, and 77.9% in chamfer distance relative to planar slicing, achieved without additional computational cost (≈32 s per model) or print length. These results demonstrate that enveloping-based path planning effectively mitigates artifacts inherent to slicing-based approaches, providing a strategy for high-fidelity, reliable fabrication of complex geometries.