[home] [Personal Program] [Help]

---

Session: Session 11: Repair strategies
Session starts: Thursday 16 April, 15:20
Presentation starts: 16:20
Room: Main

---

Wout De Backer (University of South Carolina)
Jacob Walker (University of South Carolina)
Patrick Bailey (University of South Carolina)
Michael Cargill (University of South Carolina)

Abstract:
Composite repair of aircraft structures remains a predominantly manual and labor-intensive process that demands high precision in locating damage, removing material, and applying repair patches. While much of the recent research in this area has focused on automated damage detection, the subsequent repair operations, particularly localization, surface preparation, and patch placement, remain challenging to automate. This work presents a robotic repair system designed to address those aspects in towards automated composite patch repair on aircraft surfaces, using a contact-based locating algorithm. A robot manipulator on a mobile cart is positioned near the damaged region and provided with the approximate defect location. Using an integrated touch-probe sensor, the system performs contact-based surface mapping to accurately locate the composite substrate geometry, and establish a local coordinate frame for the repair sequence. The mapped geometry is then used to generate toolpaths for automated milling of the damaged area, ensuring material removal that conforms to the complex curvature of aircraft surfaces. Following surface preparation, the robot automatically aligns, picks, and places a pre-formed composite patch onto the repaired area using an adhesive bonding process. The full workflow, including geometric localization, damage removal toolpath planning, and automated patch placement, is presented, emphasizing the integration of tactile sensing, motion control, and process automation. Experimental trials on curved composite aircraft panels demonstrate sub-millimeter accuracy and consistent patch adhesion, validating the feasibility of this contact-based approach for adaptive, field-deployable composite repair in aerospace maintenance environments.