Reinforcement Learning for Synchronised Flow Control in a Dual-Gate Resin Infusion System
This addresses process control challenges in composites manufacturing, such as for wind turbine blades, but is incremental as it applies an existing RL method to a specific scenario.
The paper tackled the problem of controlling resin flow in composite manufacturing to prevent defects by developing a reinforcement learning strategy using Proximal Policy Optimisation to synchronise flow fronts in a dual-gate system, demonstrating effectiveness in achieving accurate flow convergence.
Resin infusion (RI) and resin transfer moulding (RTM) are critical processes for the manufacturing of high-performance fibre-reinforced polymer composites, particularly for large-scale applications such as wind turbine blades. Controlling the resin flow dynamics in these processes is critical to ensure the uniform impregnation of the fibre reinforcements, thereby preventing residual porosities and dry spots that impact the consequent structural integrity of the final component. This paper presents a reinforcement learning (RL) based strategy, established using process simulations, for synchronising the different resin flow fronts in an infusion scenario involving two resin inlets and a single outlet. Using Proximal Policy Optimisation (PPO), our approach addresses the challenge of managing the fluid dynamics in a partially observable environment. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the RL approach in achieving an accurate flow convergence, highlighting its potential towards improving process control and product quality in composites manufacturing.