Automated assembly of fuselage skin panels

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to describe the development and testing of a system for the automated assembly of aircraft fuselage panels. Design/methodology/approach -The system described in this paper uses a low-cost industrial robot and laser stripe sensor to assemble stringers on to a fuselage panel prior to riveting. The method uses a combination of measurement and best fit placement algorithms to optimally locate parts relative to existing features. Findings -The paper demonstrates that with a combination of metrology and mathematical processing standard industrial robots can be used to assemble aero-structure subassemblies. The paper also demonstrates that the system can work within the tolerances required within the aerospace industry. Originality/value -The paper introduces techniques for compensating for the inherent distortion that occurs in airframe components during manufacture. This is an enabling technology that will significantly increase the number of possible applications for industrial robots in the assembly of aero-structures.

The Design and Evaluation of an Ergonomic Contactless Gesture Control System for Industrial Robots

“…Du and Zhang (2015) have incorporated both particle filters and Kalman filters to improve the tracking accuracy of Leap Motion. However, the recorded tracking error is still significant compared to typical manufacturing tolerance in highvalue production [33]. The developed system utilise a gesture control method based on hand positional thresholds which is not affected by the reported tracking error.…”

“…As explained previously, the Leap Motion device has tracking errors which can be compensated by incorporating appropriate filters as demonstrated in [12]. However, the errors have remained relatively high compared to typical high-value production manufacturing tolerance [33]. For this reason, real-time robot teleoperation involving mimicking human hand movement is not feasible for critical tasks that require precise positioning because precise hand positional data is one of the key enablers for this method.…”

Variation modeling of aeronautical thin-walled structures with multi-state riveting

“…Thin-walled structures are widely used in the aircraft industry in assembling important subsystems such as fuselage, wings, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer [1]. We call such structures aeronautical thin-walled structures (ATWSs).…”

Development of technology for automated assembly of aircraft using industrial robotics

“…The largest manufacturers of aviation equipment in cooperation with scientific organizations are working on developing technology for the use of industrial robots in the process of assembling aircraft elements [1][2][3][4]. In a number of studies, individual tasks of using robots in the assembly process are being solved.…”