Composite structure repair system and method

A composite structure repair system comprising:

• a computer system;
• and
• a repair manager running on the computer system, wherein the repair manager selects four corner holes from a plurality of existing holes outside of a repaired area in a repaired composite structure, wherein the four corner holes define a rectangle that encompasses the repaired area and at least a few rows of the plurality of existing holes outside of the repaired area, and wherein each side on opposite sides of the rectangle includes a pair of corner holes with a same number of intermediate holes between the pair of corner holes;
• generates a surface representation of the repaired composite structure based on a scan of a surface of the repaired composite structure that includes the rectangle that has the four corner holes, wherein the scan is obtained from a three-dimensional scanner;
• generates, for each side of the rectangle, a series of side hole locations between a corresponding pair of corner holes, wherein side hole locations in the series of side hole locations are equidistant to each other;
• generates grid vector lines extending between corresponding pairs of the side hole locations on opposite sides of the rectangle, wherein the grid vector lines approximate a curvature of the surface of the repaired composite structure and intersect each other at intersection points on the surface representation to form a grid;
• determines point coordinates for each of the intersection points of the grid vector lines that lie within the repaired area;
• and creates a tool path for a number of robotic devices to drill new holes at the point coordinates for each of the intersection points that lie within the repaired area at which an existing hole is not present, enabling the number of robotic devices to drill the new holes in the repaired area with a hole pattern that matches an existing hole pattern for the plurality of existing holes in the repaired composite structure.