To meet the growing demand for composite components in the aerospace manufacturing industry

an integrated robotic automated fiber placement system and associated CAM software have been designed for the problem of automated molding of composite materials. The integrated design of the laying head and the yarn frame effectively reduces the total volume of the machine and shortens the yarn transfer path. The core component of the laying head has been designed with shearing

re-feeding

clamping

heating and pressure mechanisms

enabling it to realize the mentioned functions. An autonomous and controllable automated fiber placement CAM software is developed based on C++ language

Qt framework

OpenCASCADE and OpenGL. The functions of display interaction

trajectory planning

layup analysis and motion simulation are integrated together

which greatly improves the usableness and operational efficiency of the software. Finally

it is verified by curved surface automated fiber placement experiments. The results show that the designed robotic automated fiber placement system and the CAM software can ensure the accuracy

stability and reliability in the laying process.