This content is not included in
your SAE MOBILUS subscription, or you are not logged in.
Snake-Arm Robots – A New Tool for the Aerospace Industry
Technical Paper
2003-01-2952
ISSN: 0148-7191, e-ISSN: 2688-3627
Annotation ability available
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
This paper introduces a type of robot, called a snake-arm robot, which offers the potential to change aircraft assembly and maintenance processes in order to reduce costs and lead times.
A snake-arm robot has many segments and belongs to the family of hyper-redundant robots. The appeal of this type of device is that a snake-arm uses its many segments, controlled by a nose-following algorithm, to reach into restricted access spaces in a minimally obtrusive manner.
In addition to nose following, a second artifact of the OCRobotics design is the use of flexible rather than rigid segments. Whilst this improves the ability of the arm to reach into awkward spaces, it also means that the arm is compliant and has the potential to be used unguarded in human environments.
Historically industrial robots have been developed for the automotive industry and are not widely used for aircraft assembly. This is partly because the challenges of aircraft manufacture and maintenance are quite dissimilar to those of the car industry. Differences include production volumes, size and range of components, process tolerances and the level of control over the working environment. The assembly of aircraft stubbornly remains a ‘craft industry’.
If significant cost reductions are to be achieved through increased use of automation then process change needs to happen in parallel with the development of new tools and technologies. Whilst some of these technologies can be transferred from other sectors, other ideas need to be pulled through by the aircraft industry for the aircraft industry.
This paper explains how snake-arm robots operate and identifies strengths that may be relevant to various aircraft assembly and maintenance procedures including inspection, cleaning, application of sealant, painting, laser welding, leak detection, NDT and riveting.
The paper concludes with progress in the area of explosive ordnance disposal. This military application demonstrates key features of similar technology that could be applied to the aerospace industry.
Recommended Content
Authors
Citation
Buckingham, R. and Graham, A., "Snake-Arm Robots – A New Tool for the Aerospace Industry," SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-2952, 2003, https://doi.org/10.4271/2003-01-2952.Also In
References
- Electroimpact http://www.electroimpact.com/a380.asp
- Hirose Shigeo et al Tokyo Institute of Technology http://mozu.mes.titech.ac.jp/fastidx.html
- Walker Ian et al Clemson University http://www.ces.clemson.edu/∼ianw/
- Chosat Howie et al Carnegie Mellon University http://voronoi.sbp.ri.cmu.edu/projects.snake.english.html
- Chirikjian Gregory et al Johns Hopkins University http://custer.me.jhu.edu/html/publication.html#hyper
- Burdick Joel et al Caltech http://robotics.caltech.edu/papers.html
- “Robocrane and EMMA applied to waste storage tank remediation” Bostelman R.V Albus J.S. Graham R.E. American Nuclear Society Seventh Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Augusta, Georgia April 1997
- PosEye http://www.meeq.se/