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Abstract: How to obtain an accurate support for large components by ball joint is a key process in aircraft digital assembly. A novel principle and device is developed to solve the problem. Firstly, the working principle of the device is introduced. When three or four displacement sensors installed in the localizer are touched by the ball-head, the spatial relation is calculated between the large aircraft component’s ball-head and the localizer’s ball-socket. The localizer is driven to achieve a new position by compensation. Relatively, a support revising algorithm is proposed. The localizer’s ball-socket approaches the ball-head based on the displacement sensors. According to the points selected from its spherical surface, the coordinates of ball-head spherical center are computed by geometry. Finally, as a typical application, the device is used to conduct a test-fuselage’s ball-head into a localizer’s ball-socket. Positional deviations of the spherical centers between the ball-head and the ball-socket in the x, y, and z directions are all controlled within ±0.05 mm under various working conditions. The results of the experiments show that the device has the characteristics of high precision, excellent stability, strong operability, and great potential to be applied widely in the modern aircraft industry.

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