Tape course generation method and apparatus for programming a composite tape lamination machine

A computer program product for defining a composite tape course to form at least a portion of a composite part ply, including a computer-readable medium encoded with instructions configured to be executed by a processor in order to perform predetermined operations comprising:

• approximating a contoured surface with a reference plane;
• mapping a ply boundary from the contoured surface to a reference ply boundary in the reference plane;
• mapping a tape boundary from the contoured surface to a reference tape boundary in the reference plane;
• and
• defining a tape edge based at least in part on an reference intersection of the reference ply boundary and the reference tape boundary.

A tape course generator for defining a composite tape course to form at least a portion of a composite part ply, comprising:

• a reference surface parameterizer configured to approximate a contoured surface with a reference surface, map a ply boundary from the contoured surface to an intermediate ply boundary on the reference surface, and map a tape boundary from the contoured surface to an intermediate tape boundary on the reference surface;
• a reference plane instantiator configured to approximate the reference surface with a reference plane, map the intermediate ply boundary to a reference ply boundary in the reference plane, and map the intermediate tape boundary to a reference tape boundary in the reference plane;
• and
• a tape course delimiter configured to define tape edge based at least in part on an reference intersection of the reference ply boundary and the reference tape boundary.