Robotic Assembly of Aircraft Engine Components Using a Closed-loop Alignment Process

This paper presents robotic assembly of aircraft engine components that cannot be assembled using traditional robotic assembly methods. The reason for this is uncertainty in shape and dimensional accuracy due to imperfections in the preceding manufacturing processes. In addition, the aircraft engine components are designed as complex geometry thin shell parts that are compliant in certain directions, resulting in assemblies which cannot meet manufacturing tolerances without forcing the components into shape and position. We present a solution to the problem using two real-time controlled industrial robots and a high accuracy laser triangulation sensor in a closed loop alignment process.