Traditional chemical cleaning

mechanical sanding

and sandblasting can produce large volumes of hazardous waste and damage the substrate. In addition

the depainting process is low-efficient and labor-intensive. Based on the aircrafts structural shape and paint removal requirements

a robotic laser paint removal system for aircraft maintenance is developed. The robotic laser paint removal system contains the omnidirectional moving unit

the four-degree-of-freedom robot arm unit

the laser cleaning unit

and the measurement and control unit. Firstly

the mechanical structure and control architecture of the laser paint removal robot are designed

based on the shape of the DR-5 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

and the robot arms kinematic analysis. Workspace analysis is carried out using the D-H method to verify the reachability of the robot arm. Secondly

the robot arm is tested for repeatability

where the Z-direction repeatability is quantitatively evaluated using laser displacement sensors

and the X andY-direction repeatability is evaluated using an error circle. Finally

based on the bow path

the laser paint removal test is carried out on part of the flat surface and the curved surface of the UAV fuselage. Moreover

the paint removal result is evaluated according to the residual thickness of the surface paint layer. The results show that the repeatability of the laser paint removal robot is 0.039 mm in Z-direction and less than ±2.000 mm in the X and Y-directions; the average residual thickness of the flat surface paint removal experiment is 6.5 μm and the average residual thickness of the curved surface paint removal experiment is 21.3 μm.