4COUNTRIES

9PARTNERS

7.1MILL. EUR
BUDGET

6MILL. EUR
FUNDING

WHAT WE DO
The DrapeBot project will demonstrate an efficient humanrobot collaborative draping process for carbon fibrecomposite parts.

WHO FUNDS USThis project has received funding fromthe European Union’s Horizon 2020 researchand innovation programme under
grant agreement No 101006732.

Discover more about

DrapeBot

http://www.drapebot.eu
Contact us:
Christian Eitzinger
PROFACTOR GmbHchristian.eitzinger@profactor.at

Collaborative Drapingof Carbon Fibre Parts

EXAMPLESOBJECTIVES

Aerospace industry
Draping will be demonstrated on the example of a rib(structural hull component) of about 4m length with tightcorners. About 30 patches of material have to be placed,
where two robots will perform the pick and place
operation, while the human operator is performing the final
draping.

Draping is the process of placing soft and flexible
patches of carbon or glass fibre fabric on a 3D shapeduring the manufacturing of fibre-reinforced composite
parts. While robotic draping has made substantial
progress, there are still many draping tasks that require
human dexterity and flexibility. To combine these,
DrapeBot aims at the development ofan efficient human-robot collaborative environment,
in which a robot and a human can collaborate during
the transfer (pick&place) of the fabric and during thedraping of the material.

gripper systems with additional instrumentation to
help during the interaction with the human worker
and to ensure the accuracy and quality of thedraping process.

an environment in which a human worker can safely
collaborate with the large robotic systems, where
trust and usability are key non-technical aspects thatneed to be addressed.

RESULTS

The main result of the project will be two integrated robotic
workcells, demonstrating different levels of collaboration.
The “DrapeCell” will consist of a single robot with a large
gripper to handle patches of several meters in length. This
will be done jointly with a human operator. Additional
sensors integrated into the gripper will allow themonitoring of positional accuracy and draping quality. The
robot will drape large areas of lower curvature, while thehuman will work on smaller areas with e.g. corners.
The “TEZ” will include two robots on a linear axis, of whicheach will be equipped with a smaller gripper todemonstrate joint handling of fabric by two robots. The
collaborative aspect will take place in a shared workspace
where robot and human work alternatingly on the task.
Both workcells will enable a higher degree of automation
for draping of medium and large size parts with complex
geometry.

Automotive industry
A complex automotive component, such as the front hoodwill be used for demonstration. The front hood will have asize of 2 x 1.5m and will require the joint, collaborativetransport of material and high positional accuracy. Quality
requirements are particularly high as the final layer will bevisible on the surface.
Maritime industry
The blade of a ship propeller will be used to demonstratecollaborative draping. The length of the part is 1.5m. It will
require collaborative transfer of the material as well as joint
draping by the human and the robot. A variety of patch
sizes and shapes will be draped in this use case.