Robotic Automated Fiber Placement (RAFP) technology has revolutionized manufacturing large fiber reinforced composite structures. Among others, the notable advantage of RAFP is that the designer is no more restricted to the use of straight fiber paths, which means it is possible to have curvilinear fiber paths designed for optimizing structural performance. In this paper, robotic manufacturing parameters and associated constraints imposed by these parameters on the mathematical design space is explicitly identified, and these artifacts are introduced in an optimization framework. The solution to an example problem to minimize the Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) around a window cutout typical of a composite aircraft fuselage is presented. Realistic manufacturing induced deviations like gaps and overlaps during the RAFP process is explicitly accounted for in the mathematical framework, thereby producing realizable designs that can be manufactured by a RAFP machine. These unavoidable RAFP manufacturing induced effects have not been incorporated in a mathematical framework as has been presented here.
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