Thesis Proposal - Autonomous sensor-based bed-leveling of 3D-printers

Background

Setting up a 3D-printer for a print can sometimes be a tedious task. Most tasks are already part of the process and taken care of, such as pre-heating the nozzle, pre-heating the printing bed and putting the nozzle at the right starting location. But some tasks still need to be carried out manually before starting a new print. One such task is leveling the printer bed.

Making sure the printer bed is level is important to keep the quality of the print high as well as minimizing the number of bad or failed prints. Checking if the bed is level is also a time-consuming task. An autonomous bed-leveling system could therefore help reduce the time it takes to set up the printer before printing.

The printer currently has a Raspberry pi connected that controls the temperature regulation of the nozzle. This Pi could also take care of the sensor input and feedback to the printer on how to adjust the bed.

Work description

This thesis aims to design, implement, and evaluate a sensor-based bed-leveling system. The system should be able to detect if the bed is not level and perform a leveling of the bed.

We think the thesis will contain the following parts,

• Investigate what kind of sensors would be good to use.
• Design and implementation of the sensor-based bed leveling system.
• Testing of the system.
• Evaluating the sensor-based approach to already existing methods.

For a successful thesis work, we believe that the applicants should have a: 

• Background in computer science, electrical engineering, or mechanical engineering.
• Interest of working with both hardware and software.
• Understanding of relevant hardware and software.
• It would be meritorious to have experience in 3D-printing.

Application:

We look forward to receiving your resume, and preferably, a personal letter in which you explain why you want to write your thesis with Syntronic.

We screen and evaluate applications on an ongoing basis.