With the gradual deepening of the application of industrial robots in the field of aviation manufacturing, some shortcomings have also begun to appear, such as low automation of operation planning and interference collision detection, long production preparation time such as positioning calibration and offline programming, insufficient consideration of operation flexibility and expandability, resulting in low utilization rate of equipment, etc. Sometimes the advantages of robots cannot be reflected in the single-piece and small-batch production mode of aviation products.

Therefore, in the future, industrial robots in the field of aviation manufacturing need to better adapt to the changing task requirements and complex site environment in single-piece and small batch production modes, improve positioning and motion accuracy, shorten offline programming and production preparation time, improve equipment utilization, and so on, so as to give full play to the advantages and characteristics of robots. The following technologies will be the key enabling technologies for commonality.

(1) High-precision measurement and positioning technology. Industrial robots have high repeated positioning accuracy and low absolute positioning accuracy, which cannot meet the requirements of absolute positioning accuracy in aircraft digital assembly, so high-precision measuring devices are needed to guide the robot end effector to achieve servo control of the motion trajectory. At present, large-scale measurement mainly uses laser trackers and iGPS, etc. Monocular vision, binocular vision, hand-eye vision, laser ranging sensors and so on have their own advantages in local measurement. In some special occasions, acoustic and force sensors are also useful. It is foreseeable that multi-sensor information fusion technology will be further developed.

(2) End precision compensation technology. The accuracy of robot end is affected by many factors, such as kinematic interpolation, robot load, stiffness, mechanical clearance, tool wear, thermal effect and so on. Therefore, in addition to the use of high-precision measuring instruments, the establishment of positioning error model and compensation algorithm is also an important means to improve the positioning accuracy. To this end, it is necessary to identify the parameters of the joint stiffness, position error, deformation caused by temperature, etc. of the robot, obtain the error model or error matrix, and then provide servo correction for the positioning of the end effector by precision compensation algorithm.

(3) Intelligent planning technology. The robot is the carrier of automation. Whether it is drilling, spraying, welding, cutting, assembling, gluing or dispensing, it depends on the end of the robot to complete the operation strictly according to the predetermined trajectory movement. Therefore, the result of trajectory planning directly affects the working efficiency and efficiency of the robot, while the efficiency and automation degree of trajectory planning directly affect the production preparation time. On the basis of in-depth understanding of the process, it is an important research direction to realize automatic path planning, robot trajectory optimization, automatic interference verification, process parameters and process optimization.

In order to improve the intelligence of robots, artificial intelligence methods such as expert systems, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing, group computing, ML, and neural networks will be introduced in large numbers, and image recognition, speech recognition, speech synthesis, natural language understanding and other technologies will also be widely used to increase and improve human-computer interaction. In addition, the rapid development of cloud computing, big data and other technologies, resource sharing, knowledge sharing, data mining and other concepts provide new ideas for improving the analysis, decision-making and collaboration capabilities of robots.

(4) Robot control technology. Because the industrial robot is a non-linear, multi-variable control object, combined with position, torque, force, visual and other information feedback, compliance control, force position hybrid control, visual servo control and other methods have been a large number of applications and research, in the face of high-speed, high-precision, heavy load operation requirements, the robot control method will still be the focus of research.

(5) Innovative design of robot body structure. Due to the particularity of the structure of aviation products, traditional industrial robots sometimes cannot meet the needs. With the gradual deepening of robot technology in the field of aviation manufacturing, there is an increasing demand for special, special and non-standard robots, which means that it is necessary to carry out innovative design of ontology structure for specific tasks and expand the application field of robots.

(6) Reconfigurable flexible processing cell technology. In the manufacture and assembly of aircraft, the number of tooling frames, large size, variety, is a great expense. The future tooling will adopt modular design, change the tooling pattern by moving various dynamic modules, and adapt to different sizes and types of products. The "digital assembly technology center without frame" being developed by Airbus is the product of this concept. The center is an assembly workstation combining software and hardware, which integrates integrated digital tooling and various assembly, adjustment and detection technologies, which can greatly improve the efficiency of aircraft assembly.

(7) Digital manufacturing system support technology. In the model-based definition (Model Based Definition, MBD) as the core of digital process design and product manufacturing mode, the three-dimensional process digital model, tooling digital model and inspection digital model derived from the three-dimensional design digital model become the basis for robot operation planning and offline programming, therefore, three-dimensional mathematical model-based job planning, lightweight model-based assembly process visualization, MBD-based digital detection and MBD-based integrated data management functions are indispensable. In addition, future robot offline programming and control systems need to be more open, including supporting standard 3D data formats, providing standardized data access interfaces, and interconnection with manufacturing information systems.

With the breakthrough and progress of these key technologies, the future aviation manufacturing robots will develop in the direction of intelligence, flexibility, dexterity, and collaboration to adapt to the rapid development of the aviation manufacturing industry and the emerging new needs:

(1) Intelligent. Existing industrial robots require manual teaching or off-line programming to perform tasks. Improving the intelligence of positioning calibration, job planning and collision detection to shorten the production preparation time is an important development direction of industrial robots in the future. People even hope that future robots can plan and control their own behavior in real time and complete their work independently, rather than just repeating actions.

(2) Flexible. Traditional industrial robots pursue speed and accuracy, and their weight is large, volume is large, power consumption is large, and rigidity is large. However, in some special occasions, lightweight robots with joint force feedback capabilities and joint flexibility have advantages due to their small weight, low power consumption, High load/weight ratio and flexible control capabilities.

(3) the dexterity. Aviation manufacturing often needs to work in the complex and hidden product space, such as the monitoring of the interior of the aircraft panel, the fastening and sealing of standard parts, and the measurement, installation, spraying and inspection of the inlet, etc. Articulated redundant DOF robots show good prospects because of their large working space and high flexibility.

In terms of walking mechanisms, industrial robots mostly use track structures, occupying large working space and ground, and high plant investment and maintenance costs. It is a more economical way to install industrial robots on wheeled or tracked mobile platforms to achieve the purpose of moving and manufacturing around parts. Crawling robots that use vacuum adsorption devices to achieve climbing on the surface of the workpiece are also worthy of attention.

(4) Collaboration. Double-arm or multi-arm robot has been paid more and more attention by many scientific research institutions at home and abroad. ABB, KUKA, YASKAWA and other international well-known robot manufacturers have carried out the research and development of related products.

In addition, despite the rapid development of robot technology, it is impossible to completely replace people, integrate robots into production, make robots work side by side with people, eliminate the protective isolation between man and machine, liberate people from simple and boring work, and then engage in more value-added work, which has always been an ideal and attractive aviation manufacturing mode in people's minds. At the end of 2012, Germany, Austria, Spain and other countries jointly launched the VALERI program under the funding of the "Factory of the Future" project of the seventh framework plan of the European Union. Its purpose is to realize advanced robot recognition and man-machine cooperative operation. Airbus has also made a bold attempt in its aircraft assembly future exploration (FUTURASSY) project, applying the humanoid dual-arm robot developed by Japan's Kawada Industry Co., Ltd. to the A380 rudder assembly workstation to carry out riveting work with ordinary human employees.

my country's aviation manufacturing industry is in a stage of rapid development. The continuous emergence of new materials and new processes and the demand for high-quality, low-cost, and flexible manufacturing make companies urgently need technology and equipment upgrades. Therefore, they are looking forward to the further development of industrial robot technology. At the same time, the progress of robot technology and basic theoretical research also provides opportunities for industrial robots to be favored in the aviation manufacturing industry. It can be predicted that under the background of vigorously developing aviation technology in China, industrial robots will play a greater role in the field of aviation manufacturing.