Project Details

[Return to Previous Page]

Design of a printer farm for real-time energy monitoring and control

Company: Penn State University

Major(s):
Primary: IE
Secondary: CMPSC
Optional: ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

The goal of the project is to design and develop an automated, energy-efficient printer farm that consists of a system of 3D printers, such as the Prusa i3, Creality CR-30, and/or Bambu Lab P1S. The students will begin by familiarizing themselves with the different printer capabilities. Then, students will identify a framework to gather, store, and analyze run-time printer data using either a local or cloud repository. This repository should enable detailed tracking of processed jobs, energy consumption, and other system parameters. Students will build an interface that visualizes the jobs, printers, and energy cost in the system. Real-time energy cost data and grid information should be incorporated in the visualization interface. Then, students will develop an optimization framework to dynamically adapt printer schedules to new jobs orders and changes in the energy cost. Finally, students will need to integrate the printers and the developed framework in one system (printer farm). As part of the project, students may need to build and integrate further automation capabilities in the system to allow for automated part removal, spool changing, and other capabilities to increase the automation capabilities of the printer farm.