The YALE Robotics Team today took a field trip to the NextFAB lab in Philadelphia. NextFAB allows anyone to use advanced technology such as 3D Printers, metal and woodworking equipment, and advanced software which normally would be unavailable to most people.
After a short tour of NextFAB, we learned how 3D printers work and about the software that powers them, called SolidWorks. We learned about creating 2D blueprints and extruding them to 3D. After that, we were given the second half of the class to create whatever we wanted with a partner.
More information about NextFAB Can be found at nextfab.com