ROBOTICS AND AEROSPACE AUTOMATION

ROBOTICS AND AEROSPACE AUTOMATION

ABSTRACT

In the field of Technology, every day a new technique is ruled. It has some pros and cons. It has his own characteristic due to which we have to adopt it. Today is the World of “new Technology” which we have to take in practice. Robotics is one of the area in the development. Robots are widely used in the Mechanical field. In the Aerospace Industries Robots are widely used for the art of wing assembly, Coating facility, manufacturing processes (cutting, drilling, weilding).There is also Shape changing robots used in the space station. At NASA, Spirit and recently Opportunity Mars Pathfinder mission used a robot explorer, which analyzed Martian rock and soil.

INTRODUCTION TO ROBOT:

A robot is defined as an intelligent mechanical device that is capable of performing tasks originally done by humans. In recent years technology has made rapid improvements in single-chip microcomputers. The drastic reduction in both the price and size of microcomputers has provided an opportunity for building new and improved robots. The aim of this was to design and develop a self-contained autonomous mobile robot.It includes a flexible picking up/disposal mechanism and the ability to identify trash-bins and the dumping grounds using infrared sensors. (1)

The term robot means robota which is from a C-Zech word meaning hard labour. Robots are useful things because they can make life much easier by doing our work for us. There are so many automatic machines around Industrial robots are often mechanical arms. (2)

Since Robby the Robot first appeared on screen in 1956’s Forbidden Planet, science fiction in print, film and on television has pushed the limits of our imagination regarding machines of the future and their abilities to perform human tasks.(3)

Thus the Robots are used in production processes called Automation Technology, i.e.SCARA (Self -Compliance Assembly Robot Arm), in hazardous enviournments, in the rescue works to perform tedious, unpleasant and very dangerous jobs. (4)

THE ART OF WING ASSEMBLY:

Air-bus has a manufacturing schedule that projects production of more than 38 wing sets a month by 2005 at least 12 greater than it's current average. Therefore the company has unveiled details of the second phase of it's new automated wing box assembly (AWBA-2) research project, which if implemented, it says could greatly reduce costs an lead times of the wing assembly process. AWBA-2 project is just one example of leading age manufacturing technologies being examined by airbus to help meet delivery schedules as orders grow and also to facilitate manufacture of more sophisticated wing designs.

AWBA-2 integrates handling, positioning, measuring, drilling, wing skin panel wrapping and fastening technologies by robot in a single 8.5 m high demonstrator. Having proved the concept of wings skin panel wrapping, the demonstrator is also capable of handling and positioning of 6 m high wing rib "quickly and safely". Further operations in the awba-2 cell demonstrator will entail evaluations for cost, accuracy and repeatability compare to manual assembly methods plus scale up implications and any aerodynamic and system effects.AWBA-2 is a partnership of seven UK best companies each responsible for designing, manufacturing and evaluating different elements within the cell demonstrator. There are six phases to the production line.(5)

COATING FACILITY FOR F-22 RAPTOR:

The expanded facility, which was designed, by Burns and MacDonnell, MO provides the final exterior finishes for the aircraft to large coating bays within the facility house a robotic system that applies the advanced coating to the aircraft. This is used for aircraft to avoid detection. To ensure through application the robotic system follows an embedded cable located in the coating bay floor which allows track guided robot to move around the perimeter of the aircraft and apply paint and coating. The robotic system offers several benefits over manual coating application including greater precision work continues on the facilities with installation and programming of the robots.

ROBOTS USED IN MANUFACTURING:

Cutting:

Waterjet cutting is now a widely accepted part of manufacturing. ABBI-R has introduced a new waterjet cutting model ,the original IV, design for easier use and having what is claimed as "The smallest footprint on the market ." it could have a role in the aerospace industry ,believes the company. The robotic system forms the core of ABBI-R's 3-D pure waterjet cutting technology for trim application for flexible automation and high pressure water pumps from Ingersoll Rand. Waterjet allows the other cleaning methods, including the blasting and deburing. (6)

Orbital Welding:

Astro Arc Polysoude supplies Lockheed Martin with automated orbital welding equipment used for propulsion system tubing assembly in its spacecraft AT NASA. A typical system consists of more than 300 welds that require the high quality and good repeatability. Spacecraft and launch vehicles uses variety of tubing, mainly from stainless steel and titanium materials, with wall thickness varying from 0.0016 to 0.09 in and diameters ranging from 0.125-1.50 inch.” Some of the tubing work we work with is quite thin," said Mike Serafin, Welding Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, CO.(7)

Drilling:

According to Airbus UK, AWBA-2 demonstrator test work’s currently meeting all expectations." AEA focused on optimization of automatic drilling parameters to maximize hole quality and minimize burr size. The company’s goal was to optimize and [effect the efficiency and speed of the drilling cycle without sacrificing hole quality. AEA carried out a manufactured a fixed tested and the conducted extensive robot based drilling tests using a robot -mounted drilling end effector.Upon completion of this trials ,AEA also undertook modal analysis and vibration trials on the robot to see what effects if any these factors might have in hole quality and accuracy when automatically drilling. It is for the fastest drilling of the holes without sacrificing hole quality and burr size, spindle speed should be set between 4000 and 8000 rpm and feed speed should start at 5.5mm/s and reduced to 1.5mm/s just before breakthrough. For this, a conventional Kuku 350 Robot was adapted to make it suitable for drilling and fastening.