Surface work on large, difficult-to-access workpieces is often carried out by labourious manual work. The ADVOCUT project (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) aims to change this. In future, light milling tasks are to be fully automated. ADVOCUT is being developed for serial use, for example in spare parts production. This will enable companies to organise cost-, personnel- and time-intensive processes much more economically and save time and money in the long term.

The focus of the student team's research and design work is on maximising accuracy. "Not an easy endeavour," as Michael Kulok, a member of the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools at TU Darmstadt, reports. However, he is convinced that an efficient machine will be developed by the end of the project in September 2006.