Robotic fibre placement process planning and control

The excellent material properties of fibre reinforced composites make them especially attractive for applications in the aerospace and automotive industries. Traditional methods of manufacturing composite structures have proven to be labour intensive and time-consuming. Robotic fibre placement for fabrication of composite components has been proposed. This approach greatly reduces production cost and time. This paper briefly presents the overall strategy for the establishment of a robotic fibre placement facility. The methodology for development of process planning and programming, simulation, program generator and control is described. In addition, the algorithms for automatic fibre path generation for open and closed surfaces will also be discussed, as well as the control system architecture for the process.