A digital twin-enabled system for real-time interactive monitoring and evaluation of aircraft tooling in the assembly process

Aircraft tooling serves as the positioning reference for component assembly, and its real-time displacement monitoring and evaluation are critical to ensuring assembly quality and efficiency. However, existing laser- and vision-based inspection methods struggle to meet the requirements of real-time monitoring due to limited accessibility and low efficiency in confined and occluded assembly environments. To address these pressing engineering needs and current technical limitations, a digital twin-enabled system for real-time interactive monitoring and evaluation of aircraft tooling (DTSAT) in the assembly process is proposed. Based on the proposed DTSAT framework, key enabling methods were developed to achieve ms-level full-field displacement monitoring using only sparse local measurements, while also supporting interactive anomaly alerts throughout the assembly process. In addition, the system integrates a high-performance data storage and retrieval mechanism to ensure full traceability of assembly-related information. A case study on the front spar assembly of an aircraft horizontal tail demonstrates the system's performance and robustness in monitoring, evaluation, data processing, and traceability, offering a valuable reference for the development of monitoring and evaluation systems under complex manufacturing conditions.