SBIR Phase I: Mobile Drilling Robot for Aerospace Structures Manufacturing

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to empower American workers to compete with low-wage workers abroad by providing a lower cost, more flexible way to fabricate complex aerospace structures than labor-intensive manual drilling. Increases in global demand for aircraft are putting pressure on large Original Equipment Manufacturers to increase rates of production. For example: A large aircraft manufacturer increased production of one of their aircraft from 47 to 52 aircraft per month in 2018 and is anticipated to continue to increase this rate to 57 in March 2019. These rate increases are not just putting pressure on the OEMs but also on their sub-tier suppliers who must increase their rates as well. Many of these smaller companies operate on tight budgets in rural areas with smaller employment pools. They are experiencing difficulty keeping up. By enhancing American worker productivity and quality with robotic systems that rural manufacturers can afford, this project will help keep quality manufacturing jobs in America for the next generation. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will design, build and validate a mobile, agile robotic drilling system for aircraft manufacturing. This system will be capable of interfacing with and operating on existing aircraft assembly jigs broadly used in the industry for manual drilling. The system will deliver 90% reduction in drilling cycle time from 60 to six seconds per hole and eliminate repeat motion injury from hand drilling, while eliminating hole quality and positional accuracy defects associated with hand drilled holes. The system will seek to implement human-robot collaboration through a speed-and-separation monitoring approach. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.