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

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

• a processor configured to:
• approximate a contoured surface with a reference plane;
• select a three-dimensional reference surface to approximate the contoured surface;
• define a first function to correlate a first point from the contoured surface to a first intermediate point on the reference surface;
• select the reference plane to approximate the reference surface;
• and
• define a second function to correlate the first intermediate point to a reference point in the reference plane;
• map a ply boundary from the contoured surface to a reference ply boundary in the reference plane;
• map a tape boundary from the contoured surface to a reference tape boundary in the reference plane;
• define a tape edge based at least in part on an reference intersection of the reference ply boundary and the reference tape boundary;
• and
• send a tape course definition;
• and
• a material application machine configured to receive the tape course definition from the processor.

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

• a processor;
• a memory containing computer-executable instructions;
• a reference surface parameterizer being stored in the memory and executable on the processor and being 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 a reference intersection of the reference ply boundary and the reference tape boundary.