Research on Flexible Positioning Technology for Airplane Pipe

Airplane pipe assembly is an important part of the aircraft manufacturing process. There are some limitations, such as poor adaptability and a long manufacturing cycle, in conventional clamps used for clamping pipes. To avoid these limitations, this paper developed a pipe clamping system with the capability of adapting pipes with different shapes and diameters. The least squares method was used to build a coordinate system for the pipe and pipe clamp system. The kinematical model of the pipe clamp system was analyzed. A method of finding the inverse solution of mechanical kinematical parameters was proposed, and was utilized to drive a mechanism performing a positioning function. The experiment, detailed in this paper, authenticated that the positioning precision of the pipe clamp system satisfies the requirements of airplane manufacture.