Vision Based In-Process Inspection for Robotic Automated Riveting

As part of an ongoing collaborative research project between The University of Nottingham and Bombardier Aerospace a pair of end-effectors have been developed that allow solid riveting of aircraft fuselage panels to be performed using conventional robots.

This paper describes the development and performance testing of a compact process monitoring system and its integration into the riveting end-effector and testing. The developed process monitoring system is based around a miniature CCD camera combined with a novel structured lighting system. The combination of the structured lighting system with image processing techniques means that good quality images of the drilled and countersunk holes and rivets can be obtained despite the confined environment and highly reflective materials involved. The impact of the system on the overall cycle time is also minimised.

The system has been successfully used to check the circularity and dimensions of the countersink of a hole drilled by the system in an Regional Jet fuselage panel and to check for the presence of any marking on the panel surface.