Automated composite draping: a review

The automated forming of high quality composite components has been the subject of a large volume of research over the last 30 years. This paper provides a summary of the challenges involved in composite layup and reviews a wide range of novel processes that have been developed, with a focus on producing high quality components from sheet material. The key themes and common approaches are identified, alongside a selection of more novel approaches which seek to solve key issues. The conclusion is that while many of the basic aspects of automation have been successfully covered, there is a considerable amount of repeated work and some of the core challenges have yet to be successfully solved.

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