Metalsmith: Versatile AI robots create custom metal parts for NASA missions

Machina Labs is helping NASA with the next generation of manufacturing with its new robotic blacksmith army.

Its Robotic Craftsman platform is a versatile manufacturing system featuring 7-axis robots that can quickly load sheets, set up parts, and use advanced AI to manage and control processes.

The robots can instantly switch tools and sensors to handle various tasks, such as shaping, scanning, and trimming different materials. The system is regularly updated to enhance and add new functions.

The versatility of these robotic metalworkers allows for the creation of custom parts that would be difficult to produce otherwise. This includes toroidal (donut-shaped) fuel tanks, which NASA has been interested in for decades.

“Innovative technologies that use sheet metal feedstock have broad applications in NASA as structural hardware, enclosures, instruments, and robotics, among others, but also for use in low-gravity manufacturing such as in Earth-orbit or on the lunar surface,” said NASA in a statement .

Efficient metal processing

Traditionally, resource limitations and versatility have not been taken into consideration while designing ground-based manufacturing processes. Heavy, single-purpose machinery is frequently employed to complete a single task in an extensive series of tasks.

They are not entirely autonomous because they require expert staff to ensure quality and continue operating. All of them are luxury items that are unaffordable in space. Nonetheless, NASA’s ability to expand its presence into deep space successfully depends on both the procedures themselves and the expertise in these production methods.

However, because sheet metal components are widely utilized in so many different applications, manufacturing them makes deep space travel possible. Here, the goal is to simplify a known on-ground manufacturing process so that NASA may use it for both in-orbit and on-ground applications.

Aiming to find a more efficient solution, Machina combines cutting-edge AI and robotics to revolutionize the sheet metal industry through its proprietary Roboforming process. It delivers finished products in days rather than months or years.

This provides customers with a significant time-to-market advantage and helps address supply chain challenges in the defense, aerospace, and automotive sectors, including critical components like structural sustainment parts, propulsion tanks, and tooling.

By integrating precise industrial robotics, AI-driven process control, and interchangeable tools within a single cell, Roboforming efficiently shapes sheet metal into large, complex parts. This approach eliminates the need for costly molds and dies, which are typically expensive and time-consuming to produce with traditional methods.

AI-driven fabrication

Machina Labs collaborated with NASA to build a flexible system for forming complex parts and reworking or repairing existing ones, using an integrated metrology system for control and analysis.

Phase II of the project looked to enhance system autonomy with advanced controls and data-driven insights, prototype various tank sizes and shapes, and collaborate with the Michoud Assembly Facility on a large toroidal tank for NASA.

Toroidal tanks lower the vehicle’s center of gravity compared to spherical or pill-shaped tanks. Machina trains these robots using proprietary physics-based simulations, as existing software is too slow. The robots undergo iterations with human guidance based on real-world data, effectively simulating metal behavior under pressure.

According to IEEE Spectrum, despite challenges, such as simulating tool adherence to the material, the robots are gathering extensive empirical data, allowing Machina to make significant strides toward full autonomy and process improvement.

Benefits include enabling in-space manufacturing, producing lightweight parts for NASA , and repurposing materials for On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM). The robotic cell will also serve multiple industries, allowing for rapid design iteration, reduced costs, and high-performance part fabrication.