Surface coating is an important operation in the manufacturing of machines and parts with super large size such as aircrafts, ships and high-speed railway. The coating robot applied in large working space is the key equipment to realize the automatic spraying of large machines and parts. It is also one of the core technologies to improve the competitiveness of China’s high-tech manufacturing field, especially aviation products. On the basis of introducing the research status of coating robots in recent years, this paper summarizes some main problems in the application of coating robots for large space aircraft, and discusses the future development trend and technical challenges of painting technology in the field.