By Tyler Hale
One of the hurdles for any company that creates a product is the manufacturing process. It can be an expensive and convoluted endeavor to turn your idea into a physical product, but an Arkansas company is developing an innovative solution for affordable manufacturing.
AMBOTS is an advanced manufacturing startup that specializes in swarm 3D printing and assembly. Instead of using a single robot, swarm 3D printing uses multiple robots to print designs that a single robot could not create. The robots are programmed so that they do not interfere with each other’s work.
What started as a research project in the University of Arkansas Department of Mechanical Engineering has turned into an ambitious company that is attempting to “create a civilization where products can be customized and manufactured locally on-demand at low cost…,” according to AMBOTS Chief Marketing Officer Marco Cruz. The company is building on existing manufacturing advances to move digital manufacturing forward so that companies can scale their manufacturing production to their needs, increase their production speed and automate assembly, according to Cruz. AMBOTS’ team is currently made up of a team of engineers: Wenchao Zhou, Austin Williams, Lucas Marques and Marco Cruz. The three co-founders – Zhou, Williams and Marques – have experience in 3D printing, software development, robotics and hardware development. Cruz has a background in software development and small business development, and he will be actively participating in the accelerator.
