AERTEC and Airbus Defence and Space have joined forces to create SCARLET, a robotic system that automates the functional testing of flight control units for aircraft manufactured at the site in Seville. This solution, which increases efficiency and reduces errors, is part of Airbus Defence and Space's digital factory strategy, with AERTEC as a key technology partner.
AERTEC's Industrial Digitalisation department has worked alongside the electrical engineering team at Airbus Defence and Space in Seville to design and configure a robotic system that autonomously carries out functional testing on the various components of flight control units.
The system includes an articulated arm from ABB, a colour camera, and several custom-developed software applications that are connected to a digital 3D model of the aircraft and control the robot in real time, depending on the specific characteristics of each flight control unit. The initial phase of the project was developed at AERTEC's facilities in the Aerópolis Aerospace Technology Park, whereas the final deployment, testing, and commissioning phases were carried out at the Airbus site in Tablada, Seville.
Francisco Carmona, Director of AERTEC's Digitalisation area, explains that "with its various interchangeable end effectors, the robot can perform bespoke tests on flight control units depending on the different elements present in each case (levers, buttons, switches, LEDs, etc.), applying different types of movement as the force of the articulated arm can be controlled in each specific action".
Depending on the requirements of each flight control unit and based on a physical and functional model, the robot follows an automatically generated testing procedure and uses different interchangeable end effectors without the need for pre-programmed movements or operator intervention. The images resulting from the process are subsequently inspected by a vision analysis model to validate the outcome of each test in real time.
The SCARLET project is part of Airbus Defence and Space's strategy to develop the digital factory concept, an initiative in which AERTEC's knowledge and experience play a key role.
