Paint thickness simulation for painting robot trajectory planning: a review

Purpose - The purposes of this paper are to review the progress of and conclude the trend for paint thickness simulation for painting robot trajectory planning. Design/methodology/approach - This paper compares the explicit function-based method and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)- based method used for paint thickness simulation. Previous research is considered, and conclusions with the outlook are drawn. Findings - The CFD-based paint deposition simulation is the trend for paint thickness simulation for painting robot trajectory planning. However, the calculation of paint thickness resulting from dynamically painting complex surface remains to be researched, which needs to build an appropriate CFD model, study approaches to dynamic painting simulation and investigate the simulation with continuously changing painting parameters. Originality/value - This paper illustrates that the CFD-based method is the trend for the paint thickness simulation for painting robot trajectory planning. Current studies have been analyzed, and techniques of CFD modeling have also been summarized, which is vital for future study.