Automated Fabrication of Composite Structures without Dedicated Tooling Neural Network Control of Narrow Gore Layup

The project objective is to fabricate high-strength shapes from composite materials without the use of dies, molds or any type of dedicated tooling. In the process, a "forming master" is created from deformable sheet material on a first pass through the molding apparatus. In successive passes, plies of composite materials are overlaid on the master and consolidated by the apparatus. These sequential layering operations may serve to encapsulate wiring, tubing, optical fibers, sensors, actuators and other functional or structural components. The generation of such "integrated structures", without hand labor and without tedious and expensive tooling preparation, is an ultimate objective of the project. Anticipated benefits include rapid modeling, prototyping and eventual mass-manufacture of products, from a wide variety of advanced composite materials, for many applications.