Three-dimensional-printed medical devices are a separate group of medical devices necessary for the development of personalized medicine. The present article discusses a modern and specific group of medical devices and exoskeletons, which aims to present our own experiences in the selection of materials, design, artificial-intelligence optimization, production, and testing of several generations of various upper limb exoskeletons when considering the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and the ISO 13485 and ISO 10993 standards. Work is underway to maintain the methodological rigor inherent in medical devices and to develop new business models to achieve cost-effectiveness so that inadequate legislation does not stop the development of this group of technologies (3D scanning, 3D printing, and reverse engineering) in the healthcare system. The gap between research and engineering practice and clinical 3D printing should be bridged as quickly and as carefully as possible. This measure will ensure the transfer of proven solutions into clinical practice. The growing maturity of 3D printing technology will increasingly impact everyday clinical practice, so it is necessary to prepare medical specialists and strategic and organizational changes to realize the correct implementation based on the needs of patients and clinicians.

3D printing of assistive devices requires optimization of material selection, raw materials formulas, and complex printing processes that have to balance a high number of variable but highly correlated variables. The performance of patient-specific 3D printed solutions is still limited by both the increasing number of available materials with different properties (including multi-material printing) and the large number of process features that need to be optimized. The main purpose of this study is to compare the optimization of 3D printing properties toward the maximum tensile force of an exoskeleton sample based on two different approaches: traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) and a deep learning (DL) approach based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Compared with the results from the traditional ANN approach, optimization based on DL decreased the speed of the calculations by up to 1.5 times with the same print quality, improved the quality, decreased the MSE, and a set of printing parameters not previously determined by trial and error was also identified. The above-mentioned results show that DL is an effective tool with significant potential for wide application in the planning and optimization of material properties in the 3D printing process. Further research is needed to apply low-cost but more computationally efficient solutions to multi-tasking and multi-material additive manufacturing.

Rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) can help machines and devices to perceive, analyze, and even make inferences in a similar way to human reasoning. The aim of this article is to present applications of AI methods, including machine learning (ML), in the design and supervision of processes used in the field of additive manufacturing techniques. This approach will allow specific tasks to be solved as if they were performed by a human expert in the field. The application of AI in the development of additive manufacturing technologies makes it possible to be assisted by the knowledge of experienced operators in the design and supervision of processes acquired automatically. This reduces the risk of human error and simplifies and automates the production of products and parts. AI in 3D technology creates a wide range of possibilities for generating 3D objects and enables a machine equipped with a vision system, used in ML processes, to analyze data similar to human thought processes. Incremental printing using such a printer allows the production of objects of ever-increasing quality from several materials simultaneously. The process itself is also precise and fast. An accuracy of 97.56% means that the model is precise and makes very few errors. The 3D printing system with artificial intelligence allows the device to adapt to, for example, different material properties, as the printer examines the 3D-printed surface and automatically adjusts the printing. AI/ML-based solutions similar to ours, once learning sets are modified or extended, are easily adaptable to other technologies, materials, or multi-material 3D printing. They also allow the creation of dedicated, ML solutions that adapt to the specifics of a production line, including as self-learning solutions as production progresses.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been trying to identify which personal resources can contribute to minimizing the mental health costs in students incurred due to the restrictions that disrupted safety and predictability in their academic lives. The aim of the study was to verify if and how individual factors (resilience and positivity) and socio-environmental factors (social support and nationality) allow prediction of the level of perceived stress. University students (n = 559) from Poland, Serbia, and Italy were surveyed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Positivity Scale (PS), and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12). Personal resources—positivity, resilience, and support—were found to be positively interrelated and significantly associated with stress levels. Additionally, gender and nationality differentiated stress levels. A general linear model (GLM) showed that levels of perceived stress are best explained by resilience, positivity, tangible support, and gender. The results obtained can strengthen students’ awareness of personal resources and their protective role in maintaining mental health, as well as contribute to the creation of prevention-oriented educational activities. Nationality was not a significant predictor of the level of perceived stress, which highlights the universality of examined predictors among university students from different countries and suggests that interventions aimed at enhancing these resources could benefit students across different cultural contexts.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), has already shown its potential in the fourth technological revolution (Industry 4.0), demonstrating remarkable applications in manufacturing, including of medical devices. The aim of this publication is to present the novel concept of support by artificial intelligence (AI) for quality control of AM of medical devices made of polymeric materials, based on the example of our own elbow exoskeleton. The methodology of the above-mentioned inspection process differs depending on the intended application of 3D printing as well as 3D scanning or reverse engineering. The use of artificial intelligence increases the versatility of this process, allowing it to be adapted to specific needs. This brings not only innovative scientific and technological solutions, but also a significant economic and social impact through faster operation, greater efficiency, and cost savings. The article also indicates the limitations and directions for the further development of the proposed solution.

The study aimed to develop a system supporting technological process planning for machining and 3D printing. Such a system should function similarly to the way human experts act in their fields of expertise and should be capable of gathering the necessary knowledge, analysing data, and drawing conclusions to solve problems. This could be done by utilising artificial intelligence (AI) methods available within such systems. The study proved the usefulness of AI methods and their significant effectiveness in supporting technological process planning. The purpose of this article is to show an intelligent system that includes knowledge, models, and procedures supporting the company’s employees as part of machining and 3D printing. Few works are combining these two types of processing. Nowadays, however, these two types of processing overlap each other into a common concept of hybrid processing. Therefore, in the opinion of the authors, such a comprehensive system is necessary. The system-embedded knowledge takes the form of neural networks, decision trees, and facts. The system is presented using the example of a real enterprise. The intelligent expert system is intended for process engineers who have not yet gathered sufficient experience in technological-process planning, or who have just begun their work in a given production enterprise and are not very familiar with its machinery and other means of production.