Improved Dynamic Positioning of High Speed Drilling Robots for Aerospace Composite Manufacturing

由于其多功能性和大工作量，工业机械臂已越来越多地集成到航空航天工业中，以提高制造作业的效率和可靠性。波音温尼伯公司是加拿大最大的航空复合材料制造商，为波音商用飞机生产复杂的玻璃纤维和碳复合材料结构。其中一些复合结构的制备涉及钻小孔的大图案，这是由高速机器人钻孔系统完成的。在此操作过程中，机器人必须不断经历快速的加速和减速阶段，这导致末端执行器（刀柄）的过度振荡。刀具振动会导致几何误差、孔质量差，甚至可能超出要求的公差。该项目旨在开发被动和主动控制技术，以抑制高速机器人钻井系统中的结构振动。拟议的研究合作将导致系统和可扩展的控制技术，使机器人制造系统能够以更高的速度执行操作，提高精度和可靠性。特别是，该项目的成果将帮助波音加拿大温尼伯公司保持国际竞争力，为他们提供基础知识，创新技术和HQP培训，使他们能够增加吞吐量，降低成本和交货时间，提高零件质量，并最终提高飞机的可靠性，安全性和成本效益。

Due to their versatility and large working volume, industrial robotic arms have been increasingly integrated into the aerospace industry to improve the efficiency and reliability of manufacturing operations. Boeing Winnipeg is the largest aerospace composite manufacturer in Canada producing complex fiberglass and carbon composite structures for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Preparation of some of these composite structures involves drilling of large patterns of small holes, which is performed by a high speed robotic drilling system. During this operation, the robot must constantly undergo rapid acceleration and deceleration stages, which lead to excessive oscillations at the end-effector (tool holder). Tool vibrations result in geometric errors, poor hole quality, and possibly, violation of the required tolerance. This project aims at developing passive and active control techniques to suppress structural vibrations in high speed robotic drilling systems.The proposed research collaboration will result in systematic and scalable control techniques which enable robotic manufacturing systems to perform their operations at higher speeds with enhanced accuracy and reliability. In particular, the outcome of this project will help Boeing Canada Winnipeg to remain internationally competitive by providing them with fundamental knowledge, innovative technologies, and HQP training to enable them to increase their throughput, decrease cost and lead times, improve part quality, and ultimately, enhance the reliability, safety, and cost-efficiency of airplanes.