Artificial intelligence to automate and digitalise aircraft manufacturing
The technology centre Tekniker coordinates in the DIGIFORM project the promotion of AI or sensor technology to improve and optimise industrial production.
The digitisation of production processes and means of production, increasingly present in industrial manufacturing environments, generates a large amount of valuable information, together with the information provided by simulation models and digital twins, which requires new technological advances for its correct treatment and to move towards a more sustainable, flexible and efficient production based on data.
The DIGIFORM project, in which the Tekniker technology centre, a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), is participating, has started up in 2024 with the main objective of developing enabling technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or sensor technology to promote the automation and digitisation of the manufacture of metal components in the aeronautical sector.
Specifically, the initiative focuses on increasing efficiency, sustainability and productivity, as well as reducing the set-up times of sheet metal transformation processes, while respecting the high quality requirements, finishes and geometric tolerances of the final products.
Use cases
The enabling technologies to be deployed in the project will be applied in three use cases: welding, grinding and polishing of metal parts and peen forming.
On the one hand, a TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding process control system for thin sheets will be integrated to minimise deformations and geometric distortions.
On the other hand, work will be carried out to achieve automation using AI tools and metrological technologies for a process that is currently carried out manually, such as the grinding and polishing of metal parts.
And finally, a tool will be developed to support the worker in the task of peen forming, also known as sheet metal forming by shot peening, which will help to define and adapt the different steps of the manufacturing process in real time.
‘The project puts AI technologies at the centre to develop models based on data from both virtual physical models and real manufacturing systems through monitoring and inspection. These models will be used for adaptive control and process optimisation and to improve the physical models,’ explains Oscar Gonzalo, researcher at Tekniker.
In the case of Tekniker, its research work in the project will focus on the development of digital twins of the robotic systems to improve their accuracy, the design of sensorised elements for the three processes, as well as the capture and analysis of monitoring data for the development of AI models to assist decision-making in the processes. This work will result in different process control and optimisation algorithms to be used in the robotic manufacturing cells of the processes developed in the project.
All the results expected over the three-year duration of the DIGIFORM initiative, funded by the TRANSMISIONES programme of the CDTI and the State Research Agency, will be measured and validated under the leadership of the companies of the Aernnova group; Intec Air and Aerometallic Tarazona. While the technological developments will count with the participation of MEK&BOT, Talleres Alju, Hexagon, Aernnova Engineering Division and AITIIP Centro Tecnológico, with the coordination of Tekniker.
