Variable-angle trajectory planning for fibre placement: a review

Abstract

The recent advancements of automated fibre placement technologies have led to the possibility of steering fibres in the plane. This manufacturing feature has widely broadened the way to what are known as variable-stiffness laminates and significantly increased the design space available to engineers. The variable-angle trajectory planning is one of the key technologies to implement the automatic placement of composite materials. Definition of the variable-angle trajectory during the fibre placement process is of particular importance because it determines the mechanical behavior of laminated fibre-reinforced composites. A review of the methods for the definition of variable-angle trajectory is presented out in this paper. The review mostly focuses on reference path definition and patterns for producing other fibre paths. The development status and trend of variable-angle trajectory planning are briefly described. Furthermore, a comparative study is performed to show the strength and weakness of each reference path definition method. This work also aims at giving a perspective in the future, based on known research.