Aether and Procter & Gamble partner up to develop cutting edge 3D printing and AI technologies
Aether, the San Francisco-based startup offers AI-enhanced 3D bioprinting. As a matter of fact, it has just received a two-year joint agreement with Procter & Gamble (P&G), a multinational consumer goods giant. The two companies have announced they will work together to further develop breakthrough 3D printing and AI technologies.
A collaboration to develop the relationship between 3D printing and AI
One of the aims behind this collaboration is to introduce a new, next generation Aether 3D printer. As of now, Aether has one printer on the market, Aether 1. The former is a multi-material 3D bioprinter with a multi-tool hybrid manufacturing system unified into a single device. It uses artificial intelligence to automate difficult and time-consuming tasks. The materials with which it can print include viscous pastes, gels, ABS/PLA and most filaments, liquids, ceramics and foods. We also reported at the end of January that Aether, UCL and Loughborough University were developing an ink containing nanoparticles to act as a nanosurgical tool.
Photo: Business Wire
Ryan Franks, CEO and Founder of Aether said for a recent press release, “Aether is working with P&G to completely redefine 3D printing. It’s no longer going to be just about depositing a material or two in a specific pattern. We’re building something more like an intelligent robotic craftsman, able to perform highly complex tasks with many different tools, visually evaluate and correct its work throughout the fabrication process, and constantly learn how to improve”.
Enhancements in the 3D printing technology
Through this collaboration, some features will be added to the 3D printing system to expand its capabilities. For example, they announced the pairing of high-performance cameras with custom designed hardware to enable new robotics capabilities on the 3D printer. Some other developments will include dynamic intelligent responses for things such as parameter adjustment and error correction, automatic performance of post-processing treatments and object recognition just to name a few.
The Aether and P&G joint development project will lay the groundwork for the future of 3D bioprinting. (Photo: Business Wire)
Additionally, Aether hopes to develop additional software to automate image processing in the hope of providing a substantial increase in speed over manual processing methods. Advanced automation should provide a platform for 3D printing to reach an even wider range of applications and potential. For example, prototyping and scientific research could reach a higher speed than is currently possible.
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