Robotic livery printing system

A method for printing a livery image on a surface of an object and for use in association with a motion platform, the method comprising the steps of:

• acquiring data from a local sensing suite, said local sensing suite comprises any one or combination of one or more range sensors for acquiring range data of the surface and one or more relative motion sensors for measuring relative motion of the printing module with respect to the surface;
• acquiring data from one or more global motion tracking devices;
• creating a first measurement product by fusing said acquired data from said local sensing suite and said one or more global motion tracking devices to control the motion platform to move a printing module across said surface, and wherein said fusing includes
• acquiring range data from one or more range sensors in the local sensing suite for measuring the distance of the printing module relative to a surface;
• acquiring position and orientation measurements of the printing module and the surface from the one or more global motion tracking devices;
• constructing a 3D representation of the surface by said data from the range sensors;
• computing a position and orientation of the printing module in the 3D representation of the surface;
• deriving a probabilistic quantification of said computed position and orientation of the printing module from one or more measuring characteristics of the one or more range sensors;
• deriving a probabilistic quantification of said measured position and orientation measurements of the printing module and the surface from one or more measuring characteristics of the global motion tracking devices, and calculating the position and orientation of the printing module relative to the surface from the position and orientation measurements of the printing module and the surface from the global motion tracking devices;
• and
• merging the probabilistic quantification of the position and orientation of the printing module relative to the surface from the one or more range sensors and the probabilistic quantification of the position of the printing module relative to the surface from the global motion tracking devices;
• and
• creating a second measurement product by fusing said acquired data from said local sensing suite and said one or more global motion tracking devices to control the timing of ejection of the print material from said printing module.

A method for printing a livery image on a surface of an object and for use in association with a motion platform, the method comprising the steps of:

• acquiring data from a local sensing suite;
• acquiring data from one or more global motion tracking devices;
• creating a first measurement product by fusing said acquired data from said local sensing suite and said one or more global motion tracking devices to control the motion platform to move a printing module across said surface;
• creating a second measurement product by fusing said acquired data from said local sensing suite and said one or more global motion tracking devices to control the timing of ejection of the print material from said printing module;
• i) controlling the mobile platform to move the printing module to follow a first path corresponding to a first swath of the plurality of swaths wherein a print material from the printing module is applied to form a first printed swath corresponding to the plurality of swaths;
• ii) determining a location for a next swath to be printed and aligning the next swath to be printed with the first printed swath;
• iii) controlling the printing module to follow a path corresponding to the next swath to be printed wherein the print material from the printing module is applied to form a next printed swath;
• and
• iv) repeating steps ii) to iii) until the plurality of swaths have been printed to form a plurality of printed swaths;
• and
• wherein applying the printing material from the printing module to form the next printed swath in step iii) comprises applying the printing material to a plurality of regions in close proximity to the one or more boundaries of the first swath at a reduced intensity whereby the path of the next swath to be printed is shifted to allow for overlap between the first printed swath and the next printed swath.