“…Therefore, the industry has been increasingly investing in automation and robotics to facilitate drilling tasks while increasing production rates and quality output and reducing costs (Mehlenhoff and Bloedorn, 2010; Bullen, 2014; Bi and Liang, 2011; Devlieg et al , 2002; Bendemra et al , 2014; Waurzyniak, 2015; Weber, 2015). Drilling templates and bespoke drill jigs and fixtures can be adapted for automated processes but are expensive, have long manufacturing lead times and are typically specific to an aircraft component (Jayaweera and Webb, 2007; Hu et al , 2015). Drill jigs also often required that the operation take reference dimensions on the part for each drill run, resulting in increases in idle time of machine, operator fatigue and reduction in accuracy and productivity (Thammannagowda et al , 2017).…”