Human Aided Automation – a Game Changing Chance for the Aerospace Industry

Abstract

The increasing need worldwide for aircrafts in the recent years leads to a severe demand in efficient production technologies which are capable to realize high production rates. At the same time the interest in lightweight-materials like carbon composites has gained importance for the realization of energy efficient aircrafts. Therefore future generations of aircrafts will consist of a significant amount of composite components. Today the production of those components has started to become automated. Still there is a lot of room for improvement regarding increase in efficiency and part quality and in automation which meets the specific demands of the application. Combined with industry 4.0 approaches, a principle we call Human Aided Automation bears a huge potential for aerospace industry to satisfy their near future production needs. Technologies dealt with in this context are multi-robot fiber placement, resin-transfer-molding and smart autoclave processing.