Modular lightweight robot system for aircraft production using a generic OPC UA skill concept

Enthalten in
Production engineering 
Volume
17
Start Page
329
End Page
339
Citation
Production Engineering 17: 329-339 (2023-03-15)
Publisher DOI
10.1007/s11740-023-01183-w
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85149928692
Publisher
Springer
There is a continuing trend in the aircraft industry to automate production. In order to be able to react to shortages of skilled workers, high order fluctuations and machine breakdowns, cost-effective, mobile and flexible systems are required to support the workers. This paper focuses on the integration of existing skill-based engineering concepts into production using standard OPC Unified Architecture interface, where production systems can be built quickly by simply interconnecting modules. The interconnected modules together form higher level subsystems enabling reusability of the individual modules as well as the assembled subsystems across several use cases. The approach is evaluated on a production related mobile robot system, whose task is to drive to the workstation, reference the component and drill holes in a vertical tail plane section of an aircraft. All devices from different suppliers contain skill-based modules based on standards defined by OPC Foundation and communicate via OPC UA-based Client/Server communication.
Schlagworte
Aircraft production
Manufacturing automation
OPC UA
Robotics
Skill-based engineering
DDC Class
600: Technik