Automated plate shaping and verification

A method for shaping a metal plate with a heating element, comprising:

• determining an amount of deviation between a first shape of a metal work piece and a target shape at each node of a plurality of nodes;
• generating a plurality of candidate heating paths at a heating location, wherein the heating location comprises a node of the plurality of nodes having the greatest amount of deviation;
• modeling an estimated deformation of the metal work piece for each candidate heating path of the plurality of candidate heating paths;
• selecting a first candidate heating path based on a determination that the estimated deformation caused by the first candidate heating path is estimated to transform the work piece from the first shape to a second shape;
• and
• communicating an instruction to a robotic arm of an automated plate shaping system to heat a first surface of a metal work piece, using a heating component coupled to the robotic arm, according to the first candidate heating path.

One or more non-transitory computer readable media that, when executed by one or more computer processing components, cause the one or more computer processing components to perform a method comprising:

• determining an amount of deviation between a first shape of a metal work piece and a target shape at each node of a plurality of nodes;
• generating a plurality of candidate heating paths at a heating location, wherein the heating location comprises a node of the plurality of nodes having the greatest amount of deviation;
• modeling an estimated deformation of the metal work piece for each of at least a portion of the plurality of candidate heating paths;
• selecting a first candidate heating path based on a determination that the estimated deformation caused by the first candidate heating path is estimated to transform the work piece from the first shape to a second shape;
• and
• communicating an instruction to a robotic arm of an automated plate shaping system to heat a first surface of a metal work piece using a heating component coupled to the robotic arm, according to the first candidate heating path.