Photogrammetric Measurement of Cabin Bracket Riggings on the Airbus 350

Abstract

The goal of this project was to obtain accurate 3D measurements of the many brackets that support the overhead luggage bins in the new Airbus 350 aircraft. The measured area was more than 21 m in length, and one of the key requirements was to perform the measurement with little or no impact on production. Photogrammetry was an ideal solution in this regard. Its other compelling attributes include no warmup time, a fast rate of measurement, the acquisition of all points in real time, the ability to work on the unstable aircraft flooring, and quick and reliable installation and removal of a tooling target without interfering with production. Many of the tooling targets were specially customized “feature targets” with the ability to measure points of interest without targeting them directly (which is often impractical or even impossible to do). The 3D measurement in this project was accomplished with a multiple-camera V-STARS system from Geodetic Systems Inc. of Melbourne, Florida, employing four of the company’s highest-accuracy DynaMo D12 cameras. The implementation of the measurement was highly automated and included a customized user interface developed especially for this particular application.