Systems and methods providing location feedback for additive manufacturing

An additive manufacturing system, comprising:

• a power source;
• and
• a material feeder that provides additive material to a 3D workpiece part via a contact tip of a gun,
• wherein the power source is configured to:
• sample instantaneous parameter pairs, where each instantaneous parameter pair of the instantaneous parameter pairs includes any two parameters selected from a group comprising a wire feed speed of a wire that provides the additive material to the 3D workpiece part, an output power of the power source, and an output circuit impedance of the power source, during a robotic additive manufacturing process while creating a current layer of the 3D workpiece part;
• determine an instantaneous contact tip-to-work distance during the robotic additive manufacturing process for, and based on at least, each parameter pair of the instantaneous parameter pairs as each parameter pair is sampled during the creation of the current layer;
• determine a running average contact tip-to-work distance based on each instantaneous contact tip-to-work distance as each instantaneous contact tip-to-work distance is determined during the creation of the current layer;
• and
• generate a correction factor, based on at least the running average contact tip-to-work distance, to be used while creating the current layer of the 3D workpiece part to compensate for deviations in a deposit level from a desired deposit level for the current layer.