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This paper aims to describe a methodology to optimize the trajectory of unconventional airship performing a high-altitude docking manoeuvre.

The trajectories are based upon Bezier curves whose control points positions are optimized through particle swarm optimization algorithm. A minimum energy strategy is implemented by considering the airship physical properties. The paper describes the mathematical model of the airships, the trajectories modelling through Bezier’s curves and the optimization framework. A series of test cases has been developed to evaluate the proposed methodology.

Results obtained show that the implemented procedure is able to optimize the airship trajectories and to support their in-flight docking; a strong influence of the wind speed and course on the trajectories planning is highlighted.

The wind speed considered in these simulations depends only on altitude, and gusts effect has been neglected.

The proposed model can support the study of unconventional airship trajectories and can be useful to evaluate best in-air docking strategies.

The paper addresses the problem of trajectory optimization for a class of new air vehicles with an heuristic approach.

Timing constraints affect the manufacturing of traditional large-scale components through the material extrusion technique. Thus, researchers are exploring using many independent and collaborative heads that may work on the same part simultaneously while still producing an appealing final product. The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple and repeatable approach for toolpath planning for gantry-based n independent extrusion heads with effective collision avoidance management.

This research presents an original toolpath planner based on existing slicing software and the traditional structure of G-code files. While the computationally demanding component subdivision task is assigned to computer-aided design and slicing software to build a standard G-code, the proposed algorithm scans the conventional toolpath data file, quickly isolates the instructions of a single extruder and inserts brief pauses between the instructions if the non-priority extruder conflicts with the priority one.

The methodology is validated on two real-life industrial large-scale components using architectures with two and four extruders. The case studies demonstrate the method's effectiveness, reducing printing time considerably without affecting the part quality. A static priority strategy is implemented, where one extruder gets priority over the other using a cascade process. The results of this paper demonstrate that different priority strategies reflect on the printing efficiency by a factor equal to the number of extrusion heads.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to produce an original methodology to efficiently plan the extrusion heads' trajectories for a collaborative material extrusion architecture.

In the redesign process of assembly components that need adaptation to robotic assembly, designers can find support from structured methodologies for innovation, such as the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ). This paper aims to illustrate the authors’ methodology for redesigning gas hobs components for adaptation to robotic assembly.

A designer approaching a redesign task of an assembly component of any kind for adaptation to robotic assembly must consider, first of all, the features and limitations of existing robotic assembly systems; the generation of new design ideas that best fit the requirements may result to be a very challenging task. Here, the TRIZ methodology has proven useful for generating design ideas and finding the best solution.

The authors’ methodology approaches the challenges of redesign tasks for robotic assembly adaptation, which exploits knowledge of automatic and robotic assembly systems and the TRIZ method for innovation; it has proven useful in the redesign, checks and prototyping of gas hobs components.

This paper shows how the TRIZ methodology can be integrated into the redesign process and its impact on an industrial environment. The work’s main value is to provide a set of steps to help the designers change their design components approach that is necessary but not still implemented to optimize the use of the automation.

The purpose of this study is the evaluation of advantages and criticalities related to the application of addtive manufacturing (AM) to the production of parts for musical instruments. A comparison between traditional manufacturing and AM based on different aspects is carried out.

A set of mouthpieces produced through different AM techniques has been designed, manufactured and evaluated using an end-user satisfaction-oriented approach. A musician has been tasked to play the same classical music piece with different mouthpieces, and the sound has been recorded in a recording studio. The mouthpiece and sound characteristics have been evaluated in a structured methodology.

The quality of the sound and comfort of 3D printed mouthpieces can be similar to the traditional ones provided that an accurate design and proper materials and technologies are adopted. When personalization and economic issues are considered, AM is superior to mouthpieces produced by traditional techniques.

In this research, a mouthpiece for trombone has been investigated. However, a wider analysis where several musical instruments and related parts are evaluated could provide more data.

The production of mouthpieces with AM techniques is suggested owing to the advantages which can be tackled in terms of customization, manufacturing cost and time reduction.

This research is carried out using a multidisciplinary approach where several data have been considered to evaluate the end user satisfaction of 3D printed mouthpieces.