A new boresighting method of the aircraft gun using a laser tracker
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative method to extend the operating range of the laser tracking system and improve the accuracy and automation of boresighting by designing a measurement instrument. Boresighting is a process that aligns the direction of special equipment with the aircraft reference axis. Sometimes the accurate measurement and adjustment of the equipment and the aircraft are hard to achieve.
Design/methodology/approach
The aircraft is moved by an automatic adjustment system which consists of three numerical control positioners. For obtaining the position of the bore axis, an instrument with two measurement points is designed. Based on the multivariate normal distribution hypothesis, an uncertainty evaluation method for the aiming points is introduced. The accuracy of the measurement point is described by an uncertainty ellipsoid. A compensation and calibration method is proposed to decrease the effect of manufacturing error and deflection error by the finite element analysis.
Findings
The experimental results of the boresighting measurement prove that the proposed method is effective and reliable in digital assembly. The measurement accuracy of the angle between the bore axis and the reference axis is about ±0.004°. In addition, the measurement result is mainly influenced by the position error of the instrument.
Originality/value
The results of this study will provide a new way to obtain and control the installation deviation of part in aircraft digital assembly and will help to improve the precision and efficiency. This measurement method can be applied to obtain the axis of a deep blind hole.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51375442) and the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51221004). We would also like to thank the editors and the anonymous referees for their insightful comments.
Citation
Wang, Q., Huang, P., Li, J. and Ke, Y. (2015), "A new boresighting method of the aircraft gun using a laser tracker", Sensor Review, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 251-262. https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-11-2014-740
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited