Method and apparatus for generating robot path data to automatically coat at least part of a surface of a spatial substrate with at least one coating material

A computer-implemented method for generating robot path data for robot path(s) to be followed by a robot comprising a coating tool during coating at least part of the surface of at least one spatial substrate with at least one coating material, said method comprising:

• (a) providing via a communication interface to at least one computer processor
• spatial substrate data for each spatial substrate including substrate classification data and data being indicative of the geometry and the color of each spatial substrate, and
• coating material data including data being indicative of the type of the at least one coating material and optionally of the order of the coating materials to be applied to the spatial substrate and/or data being indicative of the coating tool;
• (b) optionally determining with the at least one computer processor whether each spatial substrate comprises at least one masking material based on the provided spatial substrate data;
• (c) retrieving via the communication interface using the at least one computer processor,
• coating tool parameter data based on the provided coating material data, said coating tool parameter data including coating tool tolerance data and at least one application parameter associated with the coating tool,
• coating procedure data including a rule set for coating outer edges and edges adjacent to open space(s) and a rule set for coating main surfaces, and
• substrate type data based on the provided spatial substrate data, said substrate type data including a rule set for the type of spatial substrate matching the substrate classification data;
• (d) generating with the at least one computer processor tool path data for tool path(s) to be followed by the coating tool along the surface of each spatial substrate based on the data retrieved in step (c) and optionally the result of the determination performed in step (b);
• (e) generating with the at least one computer processor the robot path data based on tool path data generated in step (d);
• and
• (f) providing the generated robot path data via the communication interface.