A survey of machine learning in additive manufacturing technologies

Thirty years into its development, additive manufacturing has become a mainstream manufacturing process. Additive manufacturing fabricates products by adding materials layer-by-layer directly based on a 3D model. It is able to manufacture complex parts and allows more freedom of design optimization compared with traditional manufacturing techniques. Machine learning is now a hot technology that has been used in medical diagnosis, image processing, prediction, classification, learning association, regression, etc. Currently, focuses are increasingly given to using machine learning in the manufacturing industry, including additive manufacturing. Due to the rapid development of machine learning in additive manufacturing, a special issue ‘Machine Learning in Additive Manufacturing’ in International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing is organized. This paper gives a comprehensive understanding of the current status of machine learning enhanced additive manufacturing technologies for this special issue. Discussions and future perspectives are also provided.