Case Study of a Fuselage Join Automation

Abstract

A large jet fuselage consists of forward, center, and aft sections which must be joined together. The join process calls for a rough move to a “stage” position, automated measurements, and calculation of a transformation matrix to yield a move to an accurate “pre-join” position from which the manual join process is started. After the manual join is complete the fuselage sections are measured again, and the final locations recorded. Because the process of measurement, transformation calculation, and data transfer to the programmable logic computer (PLC) is an involved series of events, the customer chose to automate it and thereby ensure a repeatable and reliable result. In this article we examine the solution, look at some of the challenges faced, review the results, and consider some lessons learned.