A relaxation scheme for TSP-based 3D printing path optimizer

Abstract

Additive-layered manufacturing has gained attentionin recent years as it has many advantages over conventionalinjection moulding methods. The optimization of printing trajectoriescan be formulated as a travelling salesman problem (TSP) and solved accordingly. However, computational complexities ofordinary TSP solvers can increase tremendously with the scaleof the problem, which make them impractical. In this work, arelaxation scheme for TSP-based 3D printing path optimizer isproposed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme cansignificantly shorten the computational time of the optimizationprocess with insignificant impact on solution quality.