An off-line programming system for robotic drilling in aerospace manufacturing

Off-line programming systems are essential tools for the effective use of robots in the manufacturing environment. This paper presents a dedicated off-line programming system for robotic drilling in aerospace manufacturing. Following a brief introduction of the system architecture, the paper discusses two major problems of off-line programming for robotic drilling, i.e., redundancy resolution and position correction. A new performance index is proposed for the combined requirements of singularity and joint-limit avoidance, followed by a discussion of the redundancy resolution scheme by using numerical optimization at the joint displacement level. A position correction method using measurement data of reference holes is developed for the enhancement of robotic drilling accuracy. Robot programs generated by using the developed system have been tested on a robotic drilling system, and the experimental results are provided.

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