Hole lot quicker

摘要

A lightweight, portable robot is claimed to drill holes into aircraft components, such as wing spars, faster and cheaper than current technology.rnRoptalmu was designed at Spain's Fatronik-Tecnalia technology centre for Airbus Espana to move over aircraft components while they are fixed to a tool holder. The robot differs to other, heavier drilling machines, that are fixed to the floor. The device is made up of an automatic moving platform and a three-axis drilling robot. Once the platform is positioned near the part to be machined, the robot fixes itself to the tool holder of the part and automatically moves over it. Roptalmu uses a set of sensors and control software to drill every point that needs to be worked automatically and safely. The researchers designed the machine so it can drill a range of materials, including aluminium, titanium and carbon fibre. A key feature of Roptalmu is its portability, said Valentin Collado, Fatronik-Tecnalia's robot project manager. 'If the production system is fixed to the floor, like traditional machinery, it is very expensive and time demanding to re-allocate it throughout the shop floor,' he said. 'Moreover, with a small and portable system such as Roptalmu, the production system is moved to the aerospace part to be manufactured, instead of moving these big components to the fixed-to-the-floor machine as happens now.'