A novel approach to steel rivet detection in poorly illuminated steel structural environments

© 2016 IEEE. It is becoming increasingly achievable for steel bridge structures, which are normally both inaccessible and hazardous for humans, to be inspected and maintained by autonomous robots. Steel bridges have been traditionally constructed by securing plate members together with rivets. However, rivets present a challenge for robots both in terms of cleaning and surface traversal. This paper presents a novel approach to RGB-D image and point cloud analysis that enables rivets to be rapidly and robustly located using low cost, non-contact sensing devices that can be easily affixed to a robot. The approach performs classification based on: (a) high-intensity blobs in color images, (b) the non-linear perturbations in depth images, and (c) surface normal clusters in 3D point clouds. The predicted rivet locations from the three classifiers are combined using a probabilistic occupancy mapping technique. Experiments are conducted in several different lab and real-world steel bridge environments, where there is no external lighting infrastructure, and the sensors are attached to a mobile platform, i.e. a climbing inspection robot. The location of rivets within 2m of the robot can be robustly located within 10mm of their correct location. The state of voxels can be predicted with above 95% accuracy, in approximately 1 second per frame

Electroimpact E6390 riveting machine - Production rate increase strategy

Atualmente, as linhas de produção industriais de aviões enfrentam novos desafios. As pessoas estão a viajar mais do que nunca, os bilhetes de avião estão mais baratos do que nunca, a população mundial está a aumentar e, portanto, a procura por novos aviões, especialmente as de corredor único tem portanto, aumentado. É por isso que as taxas de produção são fundamentais neste setor, onde as máquinas são muito caras e é necessário tirar o melhor proveito de cada uma delas, para que o grande investimento possa ter retorno o mais rápido possível e para que as indústrias aeronáuticas tenham capacidade de oferta para a crescente procura. Alguns fabricantes têm um livro de encomendas para os próximos 10 anos, e continua a crescer. Surge assim, a proposta para estudar a eficiência da revitadora da Electroimpact E6390 com maior preponderância para os processos mais complexos e demorados, mas também para novas alternativas e procedimentos, que poderão ser implementados no ambito do Mestrado. Nesta tese, será feita uma visão geral da máquina que estamos a estudar, mostrando os principais processos e recursos, para que os leitores possam entrar em contexto. Depois, vai ser feita uma análise de um programa executado recentemente, para que possamos entender onde é desperdiçado mais tempo. Com isso, será iniciada uma análise de produção, vão ser procuradas as maiores perdas e vão ser dadas propostas para transformar os processos menos bem conseguidos em processos mais eficientes. Conseguiu-se apurar então que existe um elevado número de variáveis que podem influenciar a qualidade dos processos, a duração e a complexidade dos mesmos. Isto tem implicações ao nível de hardware, software, logística, materiais, recursos humanos, planeamento, estudo do processo, estudo dos tempos, entre outras. Conseguiu-se também demonstrar a importância de várias ferramentas de qualidade, gestão, planeamento, ferramentas Lean, e ainda a qualificação de pessoas, e com isto mostrar os efeitos que cada medida relacionada com cada um destes tópicos, traria em termos de eficiência. Neste caso sem desprezar a qualidade do produto. Também existem outros departamentos da empresa que desempenham um papel importante, mas às vezes não é tão visível. Processos como logística de mercadorias e informações serão tidos em consideração, pois não há eficiência se a máquina estiver à espera de material. Quanto mais rápido a informação chegar às pessoas, mais rápida será a resposta, portanto este tópico também será trabalhado. Por fim perceber que é necessário fazer intervenções a vários níveis. Começando pelo planeamento, não só de produção, mas também de logística e o fluxo de informação. A formação rigorosa dos recursos humanos é de uma importância extrema e deve ser contínua. Passando ainda pela introdução automática de ferramentas Lean, é possível ter indicadores em tempo real que auxiliariam a equipa de engenharia nas decisões. Podem ser melhorados os tempos, e o planemanto da manutenção, e ainda deverá ser pensado o custo/benefício homem máquina, uma vez que um recurso extra pode trazer ganhos consideráveis.Presently aircraft industrial production lines are facing new challenges. People are travelling more, flight tickets are cheaper, world population is increasing, and so the demand for new aircraft, especially single aisle aircraft. This is why the production rates are fundamental on this industry, where the machines are very expensive, and it is necessary to get the most out of each one, so the large investment can be paid off as soon as possible, and so aircraft industries can supply for the increasing demand. Some manufacturers have a 10-year backlog and growing. That’s how this proposal rises, to study the efficiency of the Electroimpact Riveting machine E6390, with focus on the most complex processes but also on new ways and procedures, that can be implemented, in the ambit of this Master degree. It will be made a general overview of the machine we are studying, exploring the main processes and resources, so that readers can understand and contextualize. Then an analysis of an executed program will be made, to understand where the main losses on the production are. These will trigger a production investigation, where the main losses will be quantified, and new proposals of improvements suggested. Was possible to observe there is a considerably high number of variables that can act on the quality of the processes, the duration and complexity of them. These has implications at several levels, like hardware, software, logistics material, human resources, planning, study of processes, study of times, among others. Is was also possible to show the importance of several quality, management, planning and Lean tools and Human resources qualifications. Was possible to highlight the effects of each action related to each of those topics, would bring to the efficiency of the machine. Of course, these actions would assume maintaining the high quality of the product made. There are also other company departments that play an important role here, but sometimes it is not as visible or traceable. Processes like logistics of goods and information will be taken in account because there is no efficiency if the machine is waiting for material. Along with these suggestions, new features will be proposed, and new industrial techniques will be suggested, to assist engineers. The faster the information gets to people, the quicker the response will also be considered. It was clear the knoledge that a handful of interventions needed to be made. Starting with the planning, not just production planning but also logistics and flux of information. Human resources training is one of the most important keys to success and should be a continuous process. Implementation of several Lean tools would allow a real time overview of the process and production, for example, and help sustain decisions. Times and processes can be improved, and the relationship cost/profit between men and machine needs to be revised. Maintenance can be better planned, with introduction of maintenance 4.0

Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS 1994), volume 1

The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS '94) was originally proposed because of the strong belief that America's problems of global economic competitiveness and job creation and preservation can partly be solved by the use of intelligent robotics, which are also required for human space exploration missions. Individual sessions addressed nuclear industry, agile manufacturing, security/building monitoring, on-orbit applications, vision and sensing technologies, situated control and low-level control, robotic systems architecture, environmental restoration and waste management, robotic remanufacturing, and healthcare applications

A New Concept for Permanent Geometric Reference Points made from RFID tags for Composite Aircraft Components

This work presents a new concept for permanent markers consisting of RFID tags built into aircraft components made from fibre reinforced plastics. The novelty of this concept lies in the antenna design, which represents a geometric point that can be accessed using commonly employed non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, specifically suited for thermovision. These geometric points provide a reliable frame of reference for accurate data localization throughout the entire life cycle of the components. Initial results obtained with an antenna design incorporated into a glass-reinforced epoxy laminate quantify the anticipated localization accuracy achieved through our concept. We utilize a geometrically calibrated, off-the-shelf bolometer and standard lock-in thermography in our approach

The Second Joint NASA/FAA/DOD Conference on Aging Aircraft

The purpose of the Conference was to bring together world leaders in aviation safety research, aircraft design and manufacturing, fleet operation and aviation maintenance to disseminate information on current practices and advanced technologies that will assure the continued airworthiness of the aging aircraft in the military and commercial fleets. The Conference included reviews of current industry practices, assessments of future technology requirements, and status of aviation safety research. The Conference provided an opportunity for interactions among the key personnel in the research and technology development community, the original equipment manufacturers, commercial airline operators, military fleet operators, aviation maintenance, and aircraft certification and regulatory authorities. Conference participation was unrestricted and open to the international aviation community

The simulation of automated leading edge assembly

Aircraft manufacturers are experiencing a fierce competition worldwide. Improving productivity, increasing throughput and reducing costs are influencing aircraft manufacturer’s future development. In order to improve competitiveness and provide sufficient and high quality products, it should reduce operations of aircraft assembly,majority of which are still in manual process, which limit production output. In contrast, these processes can be automated to replace manual operations. Much more attention should be placed on automated application. This project aims to propose a methodology to develop the automated assembly based on robotics and use this methodology to develop a new concept of Automated Leading Edge Assembly. The research selects an automated assembly process for further evaluation and brackets assembled on the front spar of Leading Edge are chosen to be automated assembly with robot assistant. The software DELMIA is used to develop and simulate the automated assembly process of brackets based on 3-D virtual aircraft Leading Edge models. The research development is mainly divided into three phases which are: (1) The state of art on Manual Leading Edge Assembly; (2) Automated Leading Edge Assembly framework development; (3) Automated Leading Edge Assembly framework evaluation including automated assembly process simulation based on DELMIA robotics workbench and automated assembly cost estimation. The research has proposed a methodology to develop the automated assembly based on robotics, proposed a new concept of Automated Leading Edge Assembly: using robots to replace workers to finish the assembly applications in the Leading Edge, and proposed a new automated bracket assembly process with laser ablation, adhesive bonding, drilling, riveting, and robot application. These applications can attract more and more engineers’ attention and provide preliminary knowledge for further study and detail research in the future

A novel vision-based multi-functional sensor for normality and position measurements in precise robotic manufacturing

Cobots play an essential role in the fourth industrial revolution and the automation of complex manufacturing processes. However, cobots still face challenges in achieving high precision, which obstructs their usage in precise applications such as the aerospace industry. Nonetheless, advances in perception systems unlock new cobot manufacturing capabilities. This paper presents a novel multi-functional sensor that combines visual and tactile feedback using a single optical sensor, featuring a moving gate mechanism. This work also marks the first integration of Vision-Based Tactile Sensing (VBTS) into a robotic machining end-effector. The sensor provides vision-based tactile perception capabilities for precise normality control and exteroceptive perception for robot localization and positioning. Its performance is experimentally demonstrated in a precise robotic deburring application, where the sensor achieves the high-precision requirements of the aerospace industry with a mean normality error of 0.13° and a mean positioning error of 0.2 mm. These results open a new paradigm for using vision-based sensing for precise robotic manufacturing, which surpasses conventional approaches in terms of precision, weight, size, and cost-effectiveness

Automation tools for flexible aircraft maintenance.

This report summarizes the accomplishments of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project 26546 at Sandia, during the period FY01 through FY03. The project team visited four DoD depots that support extensive aircraft maintenance in order to understand critical needs for automation, and to identify maintenance processes for potential automation or integration opportunities. From the visits, the team identified technology needs and application issues, as well as non-technical drivers that influence the application of automation in depot maintenance of aircraft. Software tools for automation facility design analysis were developed, improved, extended, and integrated to encompass greater breadth for eventual application as a generalized design tool. The design tools for automated path planning and path generation have been enhanced to incorporate those complex robot systems with redundant joint configurations, which are likely candidate designs for a complex aircraft maintenance facility. A prototype force-controlled actively compliant end-effector was designed and developed based on a parallel kinematic mechanism design. This device was developed for demonstration of surface finishing, one of many in-contact operations performed during aircraft maintenance. This end-effector tool was positioned along the workpiece by a robot manipulator, programmed for operation by the automated planning tools integrated for this project. Together, the hardware and software tools demonstrate many of the technologies required for flexible automation in a maintenance facility

Climbing Robot Cell For Fast And Flexible Manufacture Of Large Scale Structures

This paper describes the specification stages of a project which seeks to modernise and take into the future the technology of the manufacture of large fixed welded structures such as box girder bridges, storage tanks, ships and other steel fabrications which arise on construction sites, in large chemical and foodstuff plants, on offshore oil platforms etc, bringing the world of fast and flexible manufacturing to areas were construction is presently carried out by traditional use of manual labour, scaffolding and cranes and the inconvenient delivery by road of large factory prefabricated components. The Project will achieve this by creating a transportable manufacturing cell (CROCELLS) consisting of a team of cooperating climbing robot work tools whose activities are coordinated and integrated through a central intelligence. Unlike factory based cells the robot work tools must be mobile and small so that they are able to climb over long distances, to great heights and over curved surfaces and surfaces with ridges or protusions such as nodal joints providing many technical robotics problems to be solved. Small robots have payload limitations but the essence of the cooperating robot concept is that large payloads of work tools can be achieved with small robots by distributing the payload over several robots. Each robot will be dedicated to a different task to optimise overall system performance, hence there could be be a surface profiler and navigator, welder, bolt and rivet placer, hot weld quality inspector, and cold weld inspector on separate platforms. The cell will be deployed through every stage of a product life cycle, during construction where the system will perform instant weld quality diagnostics and repairs, in service inspection and repair, and final lifetime assessment. The CROCELLS concept is described in detail and system specifications are given which arise from an analysis of the industrial problems to be solved in a first exploitation phase addressed to the business requirements of the end users in the project. Then the hardware and software Architecture optimized for these specifications is presented for a prototype system presently under construction. Presently large fabrications on construction sites suffer from long fabrication times prescribed by traditional methods. The proposed mobile manufacturing cell will greatly reduce these times with economic benefits estimated at 630 M€ per annum in save time and 1956M€ per annum equipment sales taking EU export markets into account, with data for the global market being typically a factor of 4 highe