Design and off-line programming of a robotic tape winding cell

Abstract Tape winding is a variation on filament winding, in which a single tape is used instead of a bundle of independently tensioned rovings. At K.U. Leuven, a robotic tape winding cell has been developed. Starting from data of the fiber paths, a collision-free off-line robot program is generated. To avoid collisions a heuristic method is used. The method has been validated by winding of a T-piece.