Controlling the tape's gap in robotized fiber placement process using a visual servoing external hybrid control scheme

Abstract

Composite materials are increasingly used in the demanding field of aeronautics. To meet this growing need, Coriolis Composites has developed a solution of automated fiber placement named AFP. This system uses an industrial manipulator robot with six axes. This fiber placement task requires a compacting strength adapted to the material used. The robot must be kept in contact with the mold and controls the compacting strength. For the robot trajectories generation, the software specifies the position of each tape before the manufacturing of the part. During the lay-up, there may be a difference between the position of theoretical tapes and the position of real tapes. So, accuracy problems appear. Within this framework, the industrial project IMPALA was born in order to improve this new process. This paper shows the use of visual servoing to handle the position in order to improve the fiber placement accuracy.