Design and Fabrication Methodologies for Repurposing End of Life Metal via Robotic Incremental Sheet Metal Forming

This paper investigates an integrative approach to robotic incremental sheet metal forming (RISF), which connects the registration of variable material properties and geometries to the re-forming of pre-made components beyond their initial formulations. Re-using rather than recycling metals can save the significant energy costs that come with having to melt, purify and re-manufacture products, as well as saving the costs of the new object it replaces. In this paper, we describe a workflow that connects 3d scanning, design automation and fabrication. The method goes beyond state of the art for RISF by challenging the assumption of starting from a flat unused sheet of metal, opening up the potential of RISF for material reuse. Our approach is demonstrated through the fabrication of a series of bench seating elements from oil drum geometries, however is generalisable to other input materials and output geometries. 3d scanning is used to register varying geometric features such as rolled beads, irregularities such as dents and holes, and material properties such as corrosion.