CORDIS

The VADIS project aims to develop innovative and ground breaking assembly methods and solutions for cost effective wing manufacture for the future regional aircraft based on reverse engineering, intelligent process adaption, and variability aware processes and tooling. The project will develop and implement new digital design and simulation techniques, combined with future highly efficient, informatics rich and quality-driven cost-effective manufacturing solutions which will be rigorously tested and validated to deliver an integrated future wing box assembly cell. VADIS will produce an integrated wing box assembly cell for future regional aircraft, taking advantage of the latest advances in metrology, digital manufacturing and process adaption to achieve part-to-part assembly.

In Work Package 1, the datum flow chains in the RA-IADP wing were studied, and the relationships between tolerances and Assembly Key Characteristics were modelled using a statistical approach. This allowed an uncertainty budget to be calculated, and served as preparation for work package 2.

In work package 2, the assembly of reduced-size wingbox was simulated in 3DCS Computer Aided Tolerancing software, to calculate the variation in key characteristics. This used expected manufacturing tolerances, but will in future use the expected uncertainties of the measurement system to simulate the assembly using a part-to-part assembly method. A 3DCS model was validated against a mathematical approach using homogeneous transformations.

In work package 3, the requirements of the VADIS cell were refined with the Topic Manager, and potential solutions proposed and decided upon. This included various metrology systems capable of measuring features on the wingskins, and various options for measuring cell layout. Measurement tests were completed on representative samples provided by the Topic Manager to ensure suitability of the measurement system and associated software for the specific use case.

In work package 4, the uncertainty of the measuring system was further investigated, including its ability to measure the required features and interface zones. The scanning paths and measurement extraction parameters were studies and optimised. The measurement data was used to construct a reverse engineered “digital twin” of the scanned components, and project the relevant features into the models of mating components to allow CNC machining and thus enable part-to-part assembly.

In work package 5, the conceptual design presented at the preliminary design review was turned into a detailed design for acceptance at the critical design review. Methods of holding the wingskins in their nominal positions were developed. To ensure the jigs can be used with future variation in wing design, methods of resetting the jigs to cope with different product configurations were also established.

An optimised metrology philosophy for wing skin geometry data collection and an intelligent informed hardware selection process ensures that the validated accuracy of the metrology system is achieved through the work volume and not just in selected preferred locations. This will increase the validity and accuracy of the digital twin of the wing skin. A tolerance optimisation algorithm that can satisfy the design requirements and manufacturing capabilities of the processes involved for each of the skin sets that enter into the cell.

This project will develop a method to pre-determine the optimised shim and fettling requirements before the components are physically assembly by using the real measured component geometry to create the interfaces of the mating parts eliminating the reliance on fixture-based interface management. This will ensure that when the components are considered for assembly the interfaced have already been defined and manufactured ensuring a gapless, rework-free assembly process.

The project will deliver a novel, robust and high-fidelity method to adaptively update the digital twins of the wing components. This approach results in an updated CAD model of firstly the skin, intelligently reducing the big data from the measurement system into useful smaller data for the CAD model. Using the holes in the skin panel as the master, the ‘slave’ holes in spars and ribs are subsequently automatically updated. The updated drawings for these parts then allow the NC code for drilling the hole patterns to adapted such that these match the hole patterns of the skin, thus enabling part-to-part assembly enabling autonomous or assisted adaption of the wing manufacturing process.