TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– To present the technical and subsequent commercial developments arising from a large European research project into robotic paint‐spraying of low‐volume, highly variant components.Design/methodology/approach– Discusses the economic need for robots that can plan their own paint trajectories for unknown parts, and describes the design and management of the project. Presents details of the technical approach taken by the researchers, the subsequent commercial developments, and the present state of the art.Findings– The commercial developments following the research project promise a solution to the increasingly prevalent problem of small batch sizes in paint‐spraying. This opens up new markets, making much wider use of robot technology.Originality/value– Updates robot specialists and general readers on the progress of a highly innovative European initiative. VL - 33 IS - 1 SN - 0143-991X DO - 10.1108/01439910610638199 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/01439910610638199 AU - Connolly Christine ED - Joe F. Engelberger PY - 2006 Y1 - 2006/01/01 TI - The FlexPaint project T2 - Industrial Robot: An International Journal PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 19 EP - 23 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -