From CAD to Fillet: Contact-Aware Motion Planning for Aerostructure Disassembly Using a Robotic Line Saw

Abstract

End-of-life aerostructures are commonly processed by bulk scraping because removing millions of fasteners individually is prohibitively time-intensive, limiting circular value retention. This paper proposes a contact-centric destructive disassembly approach in which a straight-cutting tool (line saw/wire) performs continuous sweep cuts along part contacts to separate major aerostructure elements, similar to filleting a fish. We present a CAD-driven planning pipeline that estimates inter-part contact, constructs a contact-interfacefollowing sweep by ordering locally separating cut lines, and generates coordinated dual-robot trajectories for executing the cut with a tensioned wire tool. In simulation, the method yields collision-free trajectories that separate the leading edge from the upper skin of an aircraft winglet sub-assembly. We further validate feasibility on a small-scale dual-robot hot-wire setup on styrofoam, where the planned cut sequence removes multiple attached subparts and achieves the target geometry.