A practical implementation of robotic riveting cell for wedge parts of airframe

As there are increasing demands for efficiency and quality in airframe assembly, automation integration is required to replace manual operation. This paper presents a design of a robotic riveting cell for wedge part riveting, which is used on the trailing edge of airfoil. To complete the continuous riveting in a row of rivets at the trailing edge, a robotic riveting cell is designed to realize a set of process actions including rivet feeding/injection/cutting and press riveting. Based on the visual compensation of the hole position, a forceless feedback spiral track rivet injection compensation method is proposed. The stress feedback-based riveting process control method is introduced after rivet injection and cutting. The proposed approach is applied to the robotic riveting cell and the rivet injector works stably. No indentation has been detected using the force-controlled riveting method. The prototype can achieve the riveting task well on the wedge part. The proposed design and approach can be applied on both wedge parts and flat parts. This will give a new way to solve the automation integration problem in airframe assembly. A robotic riveting cell is designed to realize a set of process actions. A forceless feedback spiral track rivet injection compensation method is proposed. The stress feedback-based riveting process control method is employed after rivet injection and cutting.