Research on shape and force control technology for commercial aircraft CFRP fuselage panel assembly

In order to meet the requirements of safety, economy, comfortability, and environmental protection, high specific strength advanced material, represented by carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), has been widely used in the airframe of the new generation commercial aircraft. CFRP composite fuselage panels have different assembly characteristics in comparison with traditional metal fuselage panels, which put forward new requirements for aircraft assembly. This paper firstly summaries the manufacturing process of composite fuselage panel, and analyzes the current status and problems of composite fuselage panel assembly. Then, the methods in composite fuselage panel assembly is discussed, and a fully-active-drive flexible assembly method for force/shape control of composite fuselage panel assembly is proposed. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by simulation and physical experiments, with optimized control of force/shape control reached.