Developing humanoid robotics technologies to perform difficult tasks in aerospace factories is the four-year joint research program of the Joint Robotics Laboratory (CNRS/AIST) and Airbus Group. It was officially launched on February 12, 2016 at the French Embassy in Tokyo. The introduction of humanoids on aeronautical assembly lines will relieve human operators of the most laborious or dangerous tasks. This will enable them to concentrate on higher value-added tasks. The main difficulty for these robots will be working in a cramped environment: how can they perform certain movements without colliding with the many objects around them? This is the first question that researchers will have to answer, by developing new algorithms for planning and controlling precise movements.
Because of the size of aircraft (e.g. airliners) and the sheer number of tasks to be carried out on a small number of units, the use of specialized fixed-base robots, already used in the automotive industry, is impossible in the aeronautics industry. There are also other difficulties: even if robots with a mobile base and a manipulator arm can be used by industry (as at Airbus Group, for example), they are limited in their movements. They can't climb stairs or ladders, pass obstacles on the ground, and so on. For its part, the Joint Robotics Laboratory (JRL, CNRS/AIST) is developing new multi-contact locomotion technologies based on the HRP-2 and HRP-4 robot models: by using its whole body to make contact with its environment, and not just its feet, this type of robot can climb ladders and enter tight spaces. The ability to have multiple contacts also increases the robot's stability and the force it can apply when performing a task. What's more, the anthropomorphic shape of these robots offers useful versatility for performing a wide range of different tasks in a variety of environments.
The aim of the collaboration between JRL researchers and Airbus Group is to enable humanoid robots to carry out handling tasks in a constrained and limited environment - assembly lines - where they will need to make coordinated use of their bodies to complete their mission. Cramped spaces require special postures. As the calculation of such postures is mathematically complex, researchers will first have to develop new algorithms, far more powerful than those currently available, while keeping these calculations fast enough to keep the robots' movements efficient. Typical tasks the robots will have to perform include tightening a nut, cleaning an area of metal dust or inserting parts into the device structure. They will also be able to check that systems are operating correctly once manufacturing is complete.
These algorithms will be tested on a set of scenarios drawn from the needs of the various Airbus Group branches (Civil Aviation, Helicopters, and Space), and whose realism will increase over the years. On the robotics research side, in addition to the contribution of new algorithms, this collaboration may highlight the shortcomings of current robots (design, precision or power, for example). It could also help specify the specifications for the first generation of humanoid robots dedicated to the manufacture of large structures, in 10 to 15 years' time.
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