Robotic Maskant Application

Plating, plasma spraying, and other coating techniques require masking, covering the surfaces that are not to be treated. Masking is difficult for complex parts. It can take days and risk damage to the part, and human talent for masking is hard to find and keep. To address this difficulty, robotics offers a solution that is efficient, safe, and reliable. Energid will develop a hardware/software robotic system for the Air Force that is optimized for masking. It will use a spray-type applicator and be extendable to other types. Sensors will be applied to analyze the shape of each part to be masked and use this information to create an intuitive user interface for configuring the masking process. For repeat and similar parts, the operator-configured masking process will be stored in a database and reused. This will enable the system to efficiently mask all types of parts even when drawings are not available. A cost-benefit analysis tool will be designed and integrated into the user interface. In Phase I, Energid will create a design, a prototype user interface, and demonstrate the system in software simulation. To do this quickly, Energid will apply its commercial Actin software toolkit for robot simulation and control.