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US 8,954,183 B2Granted
Aircraft component manufacturing method and apparatus
AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH
InventorsAmir Kayani, Michael Poad
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of manufacturing in which a robot arm is used to pick up a workpiece which is subsequently scanned by a scanner and positioned relative to a manufacturing system for manufacturing in order to eliminate the use of a bespoke jig.
Claims15
A method of manufacturing an engineering component comprising the steps of:
- providing a robot arm having a robot arm tool centre point,
- providing a sensor,
- providing a manufacturing system having a movable end effector having an effector tool centre point,
- providing a workpiece,
- attaching the workpiece to the robot arm,
- identifying the workpiece to create workpiece identity data,
- retrieving a local workpiece tool centre point specific to the workpiece from a database using the identity data,
- using the sensor to create workpiece data indicative of global coordinates of the workpiece,
- calculating a global workpiece tool centre point using the global coordinates of the workpiece and the local workpiece tool centre point, whereby the global workpiece tool centre point is offset from the robot arm tool centre point,
- using the calculated global workpiece tool centre point as the robot arm tool centre point,
- determining a starting point by moving the robot arm to align the global workpiece tool centre point and the robot arm tool centre point to the effector tool centre point to start the operation in a correct place, and
- holding the workpiece in a stationary position whilst using the manufacturing system to perform a manufacturing operation on the workpiece held by the robot arm by moving the movable end effector from said starting point.
9 more elements
An engineering component manufacturing apparatus comprising:
- a computer,
- a robot arm having a robot arm tool centre point,
- a sensor, and,
- a manufacturing system comprising a movable end effector having an effector tool centre point,
- wherein the sensor is arranged to create workpiece data indicative of at least one of the position and the orientation of a workpiece attached to the robot arm, and
- wherein the computer is configured to retrieve a local workpiece tool centre point specific to the workpiece, calculate a global workpiece tool centre point using the workpiece data and the local workpiece tool centre point, whereby the global workpiece tool centre point is offset from the robot arm tool centre point, adjust the robot arm tool centre point to be aligned to the global workpiece tool centre point, and to control the robot arm to position the adjusted robot arm tool centre point to be in alignment with the effector tool centre point to define a starting point and to hold the workpiece stationary whilst the manufacturing system performs a manufacturing operation on the workpiece attached to the robot arm by moving the movable end effector from said starting point.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.