A sanding system for sanding a surface of a part includes a scanner and a sander. The scanner scans the part to obtain a three-dimensional (3D) surface model of the surface of the part to be sanded. The sander sands the surface of the part. The sander includes a sanding effector that engages and sands the surface of the part and a robot coupled to the sanding effector. The robot moves the sanding effector into engagement with and across the surface of the part based on the 3D surface model to sand the surface of the part.