Development of a Compact Robotic Fastening System for Enclosed Wing Assembly

三菱重工加拿大航空航天公司(MHICA)是三菱重工的集团公司，是机身总成的一级制造商。该公司于2006年成立，总部设在安大略省密西索加，并于2012年创建了一家新工厂，逐步提高了能力和产能。紧固是机身装配的一种主要制造方法，传统上是手工完成的。手动紧固操作繁琐、重复，容易出错，并可能导致健康和人体工程学问题。自成立以来，MHICA在开发自动机身组装系统方面一直非常创新。目前，该公司正在寻找一种有效的方式来实现机翼组装过程的自动化。这是一个具有挑战性的问题，因为工作空间是封闭的，非常狭窄，很难进入以进行紧固。因此，本研究项目的目标是开发一种用于封闭区域装配的紧凑型机器人紧固系统。该机器人被设计为一种便携式轮式机器人手臂，在机器人末端执行器上安装有刀盘。这项研究项目将包括五个主题。第一个主题是确定给定封闭集合区的可访问空间。第二个主题是能够扭转螺母的刀盘的设计。第三个主题是设计一种紧凑的机器人，它可以在封闭的区域内导航以进行紧固。第四个主题是机器人与工件的快速对准。最后一个问题是安全问题，即机器人将与操作员在同一装配楼层工作，而无需完全腾出邻近区域。由于机身组装约占加拿大航空航天制造业务的50%，该项目的成功完成将使MHICA等机身组装公司提高其能力。因此，该项目将通过开发创新系统和培训该领域的工程学毕业生，潜在地促进加拿大航空航天部门的增长。

MHI Canada Aerospace Inc. (MHICA), a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is a Tier 1 manufacturer of airframe assemblies. The company was created in 2006 based in Mississauga Ontario and it has progressively grown in capability and capacity with a new facility created in 2012. Fastening is a main manufacturing method for airframe assembly that is traditionally performed manually. Manual fastening operations are tedious, repetitious, prone to error, and could cause health and ergonomic problems. Since its inception, MHICA has been very innovative in developing automatic airframe assembly systems. Currently, the company is looking for an effective way of automating the wing assembly process. This is a challenging problem in that the work space is enclosed, very narrow and difficult to access for fastening. Therefore, the objective of this research project is to develop a compact robotic fastening system for enclosed area assembly. The proposed robot is designed as a portable wheeled robot arm with a toolhead attached to the robot end-effector. Five topics will be covered in this research project. The first topic is the identification of accessibility space for a given enclosed assembly area. The second topic is the design of the toolhead that is capable of torqueing a nut. The third topic is the design of a compact robot that can navigate through the enclosed area for fastening. The fourth topic is the quick alignment of the robot with the workpiece. The last issue is safety that the robot will work with the operator on the same assembly floor without the need to completely vacate the adjacent area. Since airframe assembly takes about 50% of the Canadian aerospace manufacturing business, the ssuccessful completion of this project will enable airframe assembly companies like MHICA to improve its capability. Therefore, this project will potentially contribute towards the growth of the Canadian aerospace sector by developing innovative systems and training engineering graduates in this area.