AMRC and Airbus explore use of autonomous shop-floor robots

The project began by developing safe, automated means of delivering tooling supplies internally within the Airbus factory at Broughton in Wales, but could be expanded rapidly and ultimately lead to robots capable of transporting entire wing assemblies.

Amer Liaqat, Technology Manager for Assembly Innovation & Development at Airbus UK, said: “This project has been Airbus’ first trial of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) on the shop floor. We have made a number of enhancements to the standard off-the-shelf technology to make it safe and suitable for our factory environment and are now setting benchmark for its roll-out to other Airbus sites worldwide”.

The project was initiated to fulfil Airbus’ vision of automating component handling which involves significant amount of manual work due to the sheer size of the components and precision required during aircraft assembly. Automating this process will eliminate the non-value added operations and give significant benefits to Airbus in terms of capacity and rate ramp-up.