Towards a fully automated process chain for the lay-up of large carbon dry-fibre cut pieces using cooperating robots

Abstract

At the Center for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) a pick and place process using cooperating robots for the draping and handling of large textiles in the production of a rear pressure bulkhead from carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been developed and presented in the past. This work has primarily shown the feasibility of draping and handling large cut-pieces with passively adjustable end-effectors that can reproduce spherical geometries. The process chain developed recently is mirroring a complete industrialized production and incorporates different technologies developed at our facility. Sub-processes include the planning of grip- and drop-points based on the ideal tool geometry, preprocessing of the data, automated adjustment of the grippers, cut piece detection and finally a collision-free path planning system for the robots. The process chain was used for several plies within the production of a full scale demonstrator of a rear pressure bulkhead. This work depicts the current state of the development and shows the results of the full scale application of the process. Opportunities and limitations of the setup for an industrial environment are discussed.