AARS: The Automated Aircraft Rework System

The Mercer Engineering Research Center (MERC), under contract to the United States Air Force (USAF), was responsible for providing the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC) with a robotic workcell designed to perform automated defastening and hole location/transfer rework operations on F-15 wings. This paper describes the activities required to develop and implement this workcell, known as the Automated Aircraft Rework System (AARS). AARS achieved initial production status at WR-ALC in December 1994.