Abstract: The drilling process plays a crucial role in the aviation assembly process, which not only affects assembly quality but also is a time-consuming step. Aviation drilling robots have been widely used in the field of aviation manufacturing due to their excellent drilling quality and high efficiency. However, due to the differences in size, shape, and material of the workpiece to be drilled, as well as the different processing requirements for stacking workpieces of different materials, it is necessary to design aviation drilling robots reasonably for different processing needs. Firstly, the current development status of aviation drilling robots at home and abroad was summarized, and the composition of drilling end effectors was introduced. Secondly, by comparing the different working principles of the presser foot module, normal measurement module, and benchmark detection module, the role of structural optimization and algorithm improvement in improving hole quality and meeting different processing requirements was explored. Finally, the development trend of future aviation drilling robots was discussed.