The use of composite materials in aerospace, automotive and ship industry allows manufacturing lighter and more efficient mechanical structures. The major limiting factors are the high-manufacturing costs and low-production rates. Automated tape placement is one alternative process to overcome the limiting factors. Due to the complex contour of the mandrel, the lay-up paths of the contiguous tapes are not parallel along their lengths, which eventually introduce gaps or overlaps between the edges of tapes. Overlaps and excessive gaps are undesirable as they will decrease the strength of the resulting composite member. In this paper, a novel trajectory planning method for automated tape placement, entitled improved geodesic strategy, is proposed. The strategy aims to optimize the relationship between adjacent tapes. At the same time, the distortion of composite tape is also specified in order to prevent wrinkling. The principle and characteristic of the algorithm are presented. The method is investigated on the airfoil of an unmanned aerial vehicle and some of the results are presented in this paper.
Enders ML and Hopkins PC. Developments in the fibre placement process. In: 36th international SAMPE symposium, San Diego, USA, 15-18, April 1991, pp.778–790. Covina, USA, Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Press.
2.
AhrensMMallickVParfreyK. Robot-based thermoplastic fibre placement process. Ind Robot1998; 25: 326–330.
3.
PirrungP. Machine automated tape layup. Adv Mater Proc1989; 136: 43–47.
4.
Olsen H and Craig J. Automated composite tape-lay-up using robotic devices. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2-6 May 1993, pp.291–297.Piscataway: IEEE Computer Society Press.
5.
Costen R and Marchello J. Tape-drop transient model for in-situ automated tape placement of thermoplastic composites. In: Proceedings of the 44th international SAMPE symposium and exhibition, Long Beach, CA, USA, 23–27 May 1999, pp.1820–1830. Covina, USA: Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Press.
6.
ShirinzadehBCassidyGOetomoDet al.Trajectory generation for open-contoured structures in robotic fibre placement. Robot Comput Integr Manuf2007; 23: 380–394.
7.
DeboutPChanalHDucE. Tool path smoothing of a redundant machine: application to automated fiber placement. Comput Aid Des2011; 43: 122–132.
8.
Wyatt J and Haj-Hariri H. ATL design tool for tow path optimization. In: Proceedings of the 52nd international SAMPE symposium and exhibition, Long Beach, CA, USA, 18–22 May 2008, pp.188–201. Covina, USA: Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Press.
9.
Caplan R, Davis M and Dehner J. Numerical computation of geodesics on combined piecewise smooth surfaces, www.sumseq.com/sumseq_old/M393_Final_Report.pdf (2009, accessed 12 December 2017).
10.
JonesDTJonesIAMiddletonV. Improving composite lay-up for non-spherical filament-wound pressure vessels. Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf1996; 27: 311–317.
11.
ZhangPSunRZhaoXet al.Placement suitability criteria of composite tape for mould surface in automated tape placement. Chin J Aeronaut2015; 28: 1574–1581.
12.
LiXHallettSRWisnomMR. Modelling the effect of gaps and overlaps in automated fibre placement (AFP) manufactured laminates. Sci Eng Compos Mater2015; 22: 115–129.
13.
LanMCartiéDDaviesPet al.Influence of embedded gap and overlap fiber placement defects on the microstructure and shear and compression properties of carbon–epoxy laminates. Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf2016; 82: 198–207.
14.
Hogg MW. The Boeing company. Method for laying composite tape. United States Patent US 7842145, 2006 April 6.
15.
Sevilla L, Macarrilla G and Valdegrama M. Airbus operations s.l., laying-up method for non-planar composite components. United States Patent US 8649897, 2014 February 11.
16.
Askan Y. Method of calculating the pathway of rigid strip over objects of complex curvature and covering object surface with fiber steering. United States Patent US 20150129119, 2015 May 14.
17.
LemaireEZeinSBruyneelM. Optimization of composite structures with curved fiber trajectories. Comput Struct2015; 131: 895–904.
18.
Report 99P0028. Fibre placement benchmark and technology roadmap, St. Louis, MO: The Boeing Company, 1999.
19.
BruyneelMZeinS. A modified fast marching method for defining fiber placement trajectories over meshes. Comput Struct2013; 125: 45–52.
20.
YanLChenZCShiYYet al.An accurate approach to roller path generation for robotic fibre placement of free-form surface composites. Robot Comput Integr Manuf2014; 30: 277–286.
XiongWLXiaoJWangXFet al.Algorithm of adaptive path planning for automated placement on meshed surface. Acta Aeronaut Astronaut Sin2013; 34: 434–441. (Chinese).
23.
WenLWLiJFWangXFet al.Adjustment algorithm based on structural design for automated tape laying and automated fiber placement. Acta Aeronaut Astronaut Sin2013; 34: 1731–1739. (Chinese).
24.
PieglLTillerW. The NURBS book, 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 1997.
25.
KumarGVVRShastryKGPrakashBG. Computing offsets of trimmed NURBS surfaces. Comput Aid Des2003; 35: 411–420.
26.
LongoEPandolfi BianchiM. Modelling and simulation of a layup process of composite material tapes. Math Comput Modell1994; 19: 43–54.
27.
BeakouACanoMCamJBLet al.Modelling slit tape buckling during automated prepreg manufacturing: a local approach. Comput Struct2011; 93: 2628–2635.
28.
FangYWWangXFGuSQet al.Lateral bending of prepreg during automated fiber placement. J Mater Eng2015; 43: 47–52. (Chinese).
29.
MatveevMYSchubelPJLongACet al.Understanding the buckling behaviour of steered tows in automated dry fibre placement (ADFP). Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf2016; 90: 451–456.
