In 2015, Wenchao Zhou co-founded AM3 Lab at the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. AMBOTS — Autonomous Mobile roBOTS and Advance Manufacturing roBOTS — is a company that is working on commercializing the patent-pending swarm 3D printing and assembly technologies invented by AM3 Lab.
As chief technology officer, Zhou and his team aim to automate manufacturing with a swarm of smart, autonomous mobile robots, which can aid in the production of everyday products as well as larger things such as houses and infrastructures.
Zhou, who also serves as an associate professor at the engineering department of the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and has been honored as the Outstanding Paper winner of the year in the Rapid Prototyping Journal.
When it comes to teaching, he is interested in additive manufacturing and fluid mechanics, and at AMBOTS he is focused on fully digitizing and automating the future of manufacturing throughout the entire world.
“The idea that we have had is essentially looking to see if we can build the factories locally instead of having to form a global supply chain. Economically, this would work out pretty well because of the economic scale and the technology that supports this would help easily change the way of producing things,” Zhou said.
With a few key machines able to move around, they become a critical solution to cooperating with other links in the supply chain.
“In envisioning a different paradigm, there could potentially be factories that consist of tens of thousands different types of robots, just like different humans,” Zhou said. “They can work together to build anything that you give a digital model in, so you can actually replicate these factories around the globe.”
According to Zhou, that differs from the current model because there would be multiple factories producing goods for the global population instead of multiple factories that can produce paths that would only serve the local community.
“If every factory is using similar raw materials, this can still be produced at a global scale. For example, if I am a shoe designer, in today’s world, I would have to not just design the shoe, but figure out how to manufacture and distribute the shoe if i wanted to commercialize it,” Zhou said, adding that most people would have to have a sufficient amount of capital to be able to accomplish that.
In the alternative model, this infrastructure could generate instructions for multiple manufacturing sites to follow. This innovation allows for less time spent on formulating the product and more time spent on producing what needs to be created. This is accomplished by the use of digital factories, which will not have to rely on one product to survive. For manufacturing companies, the main benefits include a simplified production process, a shorter supply chain, smaller volume, faster turnaround, customized product design and affordable cost, which could aid companies in serving customers and staying competitive.
“The product can come and go, but the factory will keep evolving with the upgrading of robots, the upgrading of our software and more,” Zhou said.
Currently, Zhou and his team are focusing on 3D printing, a digital manufacturing technology that is flexible in creation. Recently, AMBOTS released a prototype of a printer that can use a robotic arm to print three objects that, when put together, can create something larger. This cooperation is space dependent, meaning they must live in the same space time in order to cooperate. According to Zhou, his team is looking to launch this innovation this year.
While gaining traction, AMBOTS has garnered national attention in the form of recognition and awards, including the $1 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase I and II Awards from the National Science Foundation, a $3.5 million grant from Applied Research Associates to advance 3D concrete printing, being mentioned as one of General Electric’s “5 Coolest Things on Earth This Week,” a second-place recognition at the NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Competition, being featured on The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, being named as Startup of the Year by 3Dnatives and more.
With grants and recognitions, Zhou and his team continue to further refine AMBOTS technology and have become steadfast in accomplishing its goal of simplifying production processes for manufacturing companies.
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