Concept development of a visual assistance system for manual scarf repairs of composite structures made of fibre reinforced plastics

Kurzfassung

Manual repairs of composite structures are state-of-the-art across various industries. Regarding scarf repairs of carbon fibre reinforced plastics in particular, the underlying manual grinding process is time-consuming and therefore cost-intensive. Furthermore the grinding quality is inconstant and the achievable accuracy is limited. Due to multiple technological challenges in the automation of scarf repairs a largely manual execution can be expected to remain in the future. A concept of a visual assistance system is presented, which can contribute to increase the process robustness and decrease the impact of individual capabilities. This system scans the actual shape of the repair area and compares it to a reference geometry. An integrated projector displays the result on the processed surface by using a multi-colour scheme. Thereby the technician obtains a feedback about the current state of the grinding process. A first experimental test of the system demonstrates the principle feasibility of the assistance concept. Based on these results the potential for improvements of the process performance is shown and further development needs are derived.