journal article·2026-04-23Open access

AIoT Methodology for Retrofitting Aeronautical Manufacturing Systems

Eneko Villar, Isidro Calvo, Pablo Venegas, Oscar Barambones

Applied Sciences· Volume 16· Issue 9

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) technologies shifted the structure of production systems, enabling the development of more intelligent, connected and sustainable manufacturing environments. However, some industrial sectors, such as aerospace manufacturing industry, fell behind in the adoption of these new technologies, mainly because of the high safety standards, strict reliability requirements and long lifespan of aircraft components. Due to low production volumes and complex manufacturing processes, this sector relies heavily on weakly automated legacy machines and production systems. This article proposes a methodology to ease the integration of AIoT technologies for retrofitting legacy industrial equipment in the aeronautical domain in order to achieve the requirements of modern industrial production systems, enabling the development of more flexible, efficient and interconnected manufacturing environments. The proposed methodology is validated through a case study where the Smart Retrofitting of a legacy aeronautical industrial machine is carried out. The case study focuses on the development of an AIoT-based architecture to implement a predictive maintenance system through vibration and infrared thermography monitoring. A three layer architecture is proposed based on Edge/Fog/Cloud Computing paradigms. A hybrid communication architecture is used, combining wired technologies for critical real-time control tasks and wireless technologies for enhanced flexibility and scalability. The results demonstrate the viability of the proposed methodology for retrofitting legacy aircraft manufacturing systems.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Digital Transformation in Industry · Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems · Machine Fault Diagnosis Techniques

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Systems Engineering and Automatic Control, Faculty of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Aeronautical Technologies Centre (CTA), 01510 Miñano, Spain

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