Innovations at the Intersection of Generative Design and Additive Manufacturing: Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai - 600062, India.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT Bhopal University, Kothrikalan.

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 3 March 2026

Abstract

The contributions of generative design and additive manufacture will be enormous to innovations in the field of modern engineering and industrial applications. A literature survey of recently published papers to understand major advances in deep learning applications, manufacturing optimization, and industry-derived implementations is presented by the current paper. Besides, it depicts significant progress in two domains of stress-driven generative design for lattice structures and real-time process simulation through digital twins to be developed along with manufacturing aware algorithms. This work points to an increasing direction of the generative design method towards sustainability and bio-inspired approaches. Besides, the study discussed coyote issues in standardization, reliability assessment, and mass production implementations. Hence, this review will be a great source of information for the researchers and the practitioners and also serve as an opening of new and promising research avenues in generative design for additive manufacturing.