Multi-Armed Bioprinting

Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Engineering’s Center for Computer Aided Design have developed a rather interesting prototype bioprinter that is capable of printing living tissue. The device, made by Ibrahim Ozbolat, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, and doctoral student Howard Chen, does something no other 3D printer can do, whether for bioprinting or non-bioprinting: print with multiple arms simultaneously.

The problem with multiple arms is that they can easily crash into each other. Solving this problem is so difficult that all other 3D printing approaches simply avoid the problem by having only one printing arm in motion at a time. There can be no collisions if there's only one arm.

Somehow the UI researchers developed an ingenious solution to this challenge, and their new (unnamed) bioprinter is capable of very complex print operations involving multiple arms.

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