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With more than 10 000 aircrafts in their order backlog Aircraft manufacturers focus on automated assembly is of critical importance for the future of efficient production assembly. Moreover to obtain maximum benefit from automation, it is necessary to achieve not only an automated assembly cell, but also a real breakthrough in fastener technology. The optimum solution, known as “One Side Assembly”, performs the whole assembly sequence from one side of the structure using an accurate robot arm equipped with a multifunction end effector and high performance fasteners. This configuration provides an efficient and flexible automated installation process, superior to current solutions which are typically, large scale, capital intensive systems, which still require operators to complete or control the fastener installation. The search for a technological breakthrough in this domain has been targeted for more than 15 years by many aircraft manufacturers.

In today's aircraft assembly process several new features make drilling operations very challenging according to production requirements. Parts are made of thin or thick multi-material stacks with a large scope to cover and complex assembly sequences. In addition, the current ramp-up in aircraft programs involves to improve productivity while keeping process quality and reliability. In this context robotic solution meets perfectly all these requirements as it is flexible, reconfigurable, fast and agile. Among the possible end-effectors, the Barrel Multi-Function End Effector (BMFEE) appears to be the most flexible solution to allow many different process configurations. The latest developments have been focused on the drilling equipment of this BMFEE. In fact the drilling process efficiency can be constantly improved especially in terms of reliability, quality and productivity. Therefore vibration-assisted drilling system has been integrated into the BMFEE drilling module.

Alema Automation is a company which has a long experience with single robots solutions working in cooperation with an operator for drilling and filling fasteners in aerospace. Based on that experience, we have developed full automation solutions involving 2 robots working in cooperation. These robots are able to manage clamping force on flexible assemblies to avoid burrs, delamination and, in addition, to install 2 sides fasteners. So far industrial robot controllers for cooperating robots have been based on 2 separate controllers requiring specific software from the robotic integrator in order to control the cooperation between robots. Today a key cooperative feature is included in the package delivered by the robot supplier. Thus, it avoids complex programming from the integrator and specific development for cooperation to get more efficient application and also improvement on cycle time.