A robot for building planes

Fatronik Technological Centre has put the finishing touches to the development of a portable climbing robot capable of carrying out precision operations and originally designed for the aeronautics sector.

Despite being a highly technological industry, most aeronautical assemblies are still little automated, given the ever greater size of aeroplanes and the need to have large and expensive means of production.

Given this problem, Fatronik has designed a solution that is much more amenable and is aimed at the assembly stage of the structural elements of a plane (basically fuselages and wings).

This involves a light, portable, climbing robot, capable of working autonomously on the plane’s structure itself. The robot has been designed to carry out precision drilling tasks for subsequent riveting and assembly. It can operate with any material as it can support its own weight by means of suction pads, and it moves over the superstructure of the craft, adapting itself to the curvature of the fuselage and carrying out drilling tasks at a rate of 8 holes a minute.

The design incorporates a vision system that enables self-orientation in the working zone and the modification in real time of the work programme, thanks to a numerical control aid system. The robot offers great advantages as it is much cheaper, smaller and more flexible than the conventional fixed production systems, and achieves similar levels of productivity and stability against vibration due to drilling

The robotic platform, patented for Fatronik, can be easily adapted to and used for other sectors, such as in shipbuilding, construction of TEUs, cleaning buildings, etc.