SBIR Phase I: Mobile Drilling Robot for Aerospace Structures Manufacturing

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，通过提供比劳动密集型人工钻井更低成本、更灵活的制造复杂航空航天结构的方法，使美国工人能够与低工资的国外工人竞争。全球对飞机需求的增长给大型原始设备制造商带来了提高生产率的压力。例如：一家大型飞机制造商在2018年将其中一架飞机的产量从每月47架增加到52架，预计到2019年3月将继续增加到57架。这些价格上涨不仅给原始设备制造商带来了压力，也给他们的次级供应商带来了压力，他们也必须提高价格。在就业人数较少的农村地区，许多这样的小公司预算紧张。他们很难跟上。通过提高美国工人的生产力和质量，农村制造商可以负担得起机器人系统，这个项目将有助于为下一代保持美国高质量的制造业工作。这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将设计、建造并验证用于飞机制造的移动、敏捷机器人钻井系统。该系统将能够与现有的飞机装配夹具连接并在其上操作，该夹具广泛用于手动钻井。该系统可以将每个孔的钻井周期时间从60秒减少到6秒，减少90%，消除手动钻井造成的重复运动损伤，同时消除与手动钻井相关的孔质量和定位精度缺陷。该系统将寻求通过速度和分离监测方法实现人机协作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to empower American workers to compete with low-wage workers abroad by providing a lower cost, more flexible way to fabricate complex aerospace structures than labor-intensive manual drilling. Increases in global demand for aircraft are putting pressure on large Original Equipment Manufacturers to increase rates of production. For example: A large aircraft manufacturer increased production of one of their aircraft from 47 to 52 aircraft per month in 2018 and is anticipated to continue to increase this rate to 57 in March 2019. These rate increases are not just putting pressure on the OEMs but also on their sub-tier suppliers who must increase their rates as well. Many of these smaller companies operate on tight budgets in rural areas with smaller employment pools. They are experiencing difficulty keeping up. By enhancing American worker productivity and quality with robotic systems that rural manufacturers can afford, this project will help keep quality manufacturing jobs in America for the next generation.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will design, build and validate a mobile, agile robotic drilling system for aircraft manufacturing. This system will be capable of interfacing with and operating on existing aircraft assembly jigs broadly used in the industry for manual drilling. The system will deliver 90% reduction in drilling cycle time from 60 to six seconds per hole and eliminate repeat motion injury from hand drilling, while eliminating hole quality and positional accuracy defects associated with hand drilled holes. The system will seek to implement human-robot collaboration through a speed-and-separation monitoring approach.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.