- Commercial aviation must become climate neutral in the next decades, a key factor are lightweight fuselages that may increase fuel efficiency of an aircraft over its lifetime. New manufacturing processes such as in-situ, thermoplastic Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) enable larger and more complex carbon fiber reinforced components. In order to increase material performance process parameters, have to be controlled precisely. A sensible approach is introduced in this work by implementation of Model-Based Control (MPC), which can accommodate for process specific challenges. A finite element model of the process is designed and integrated in to the control. Subsequently, layup trials validate the improvements and thus show the potential of the control approach.
