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MRO companies are using a variety of robotic solutions to speed up the inspection and repair of shipping. BILL READ FRAeS reports
One of the more time-consuming tasks faced past aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies is inspecting the exterior of an shipping to appraise its required maintenance needs. In addition to scheduled maintenance and lease checks, such inspections may be required (if the aircraft receives accidental impairment or is suspected of being damaged). This could occur while the shipping is in the air (lightning, ice, bird strikes), during take-off and landing (FOD on the rail and mayhap at present also from rogue drones at airports) and while stationary (collision with service vehicles or accidental collisions with other aircraft).
If whatever of these incidents should happen or are suspected as having happened, and so the aircraft must be taken out of service and inspected for impairment. To acquit an inspection, engineers have to ready gantries or utilise lifting equipment, such as a cherry picker, to get themselves up to the level of the fuselage and wings and and then motion about the aircraft to inspect each part. This is often a complicated and lengthy process and one that has health and rubber considerations to avoid the risk of injury through falling.
To speed up inspections, MRO providers have been looking at culling ways of looking at the outside of an aircraft that does not involve having to get a person up off the ground. One particular surface area of involvement is in robotic systems which tin audit aircraft much quicker and more hands than a human could. Using automated inspections can greatly reduce inspection times from hours down to minutes, enabling skilled shipping engineers to manage more circuitous tasks and reducing the cost of the overall maintenance process.
From flying drones ...
MRO Drone (a collaboration between technology and unmanned systems company Blue Bear Systems Research and Irish aircraft engineering software specialists Output 42) has adult RAPID (Remote Automated Airplane Inspection & Dissemination) aircraft inspection organisation. The concept was derived from an earlier Bluish Bear project RISER (Remote Intelligent Survey Equipment for Radiation) which used drones to create 3D pictures of damaged or contaminated sites, such as the Fukushima nuclear ability station. Designed to be operated by personnel with minimal operator training and no previous drone feel, RAPID tin chop-chop acquire inspection information which tin be analysed and the information passed on using an airline's reporting systems. A loftier definition imaging system tin can record features as small as 1mm2. MRO Drone says that its system can reduce aircraft inspection times by upwardly to ninety%.
Bluish Bear drones are currently being used by EasyJet to conduct shipping inspections. The airline reports that checks that used to take days can now be completed in a couple of hours. (See Inspector Gadget 22 May 2018) https://world wide web.aerosociety.com/news/inspector-gadget/
Blueish Acquit hopes that its UAV inspection arrangement will be able to be used outdoors equally well every bit within hangars – although this will require approval from other aerodrome users. Looking to the future, the company anticipates that an inspection drone could be carried onboard an aircraft in example it is needed at a remote location.
At the MRO Americas prove in 2018, Airbus unveiled its own MRO inspection drone, the Airbus' Advanced Inspection Drone. Designed for utilise inside a hangar, the drone is fitted with an integral visual photographic camera, a laser-based obstacle detection sensor, flight planner software and an Airbus' aircraft inspection software assay tool. Developed in co-functioning with Airbus' subsidiary Testia which specialises in non-destructive testing, the system is optimised for inspecting the upper parts of the aircraft fuselage.
Transported inside a large suitcase, the Avant-garde Inspection Drone is designed as an alternative means to conduct an automated general visual inspection of an shipping – except that information technology can exist operated by someone with no drone flying qualifications and can inspect an entire A320 family aircraft in 30 minutes. The automatic drone follows a predefined inspection path during which information technology takes all the required images using the on-board camera. It is equipped with a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-based sensor capable of detecting obstacles and tin can halt the inspection if necessary. The pictures are then transferred to a PC database for detailed analysis using a software system. MRO engineers can localise and measure visual damage on the aircraft'southward surface past comparison it with the shipping's digital mock-up. The software also automatically generates an inspection report.
In 2015 SITA OnAir is reported to have conducted tests at Geneva drome using UAVs fitted with cameras and ultrasound sensors to inspect aircraft. The tests used a tethered Fotokite drone outside hangars and an untethered eXom Quadcopter inside hangars.
… to crawling robots
Not all MRO inspection robots wing. New Zealand-based Invert Robotics has developed a robot which employs a patented suction mechanism enabling it to cling to the outside of an shipping at any angle, including being upside down. In this example, the original application for the pattern did non come from inspecting hazardous areas only inspecting the curved surfaces of stainless steel tanks used in the dairy, nutrient and potable industry. The MRO versions of the robots tin can operate on both dry and wet surfaces, enabling them to be used both inside hangars and at exterior locations. In December Invert Robotics announced that information technology had further advanced the technology with advanced suction systems which could cling to rough or uneven surfaces
Each robot is fitted with an inspection camera which can record and transmit video images to engineers on the basis, who can use the images both to discover where repairs are needed and to record the condition of the aircraft over time. The high definition cameras can assess surfaces for flaws such as pits and cracks which may be undetectable to the human centre. The robots can likewise exist fitted with boosted sensors for ultra-audio and thermographic testing – particularly useful for detecting damage in aircraft congenital with composite components which tin can appear undamaged in a visual inspection only may be damaged internally. A total repair assessment written report can then exist provided within 72 hours.
In 2016 Capsize Robotics trialled its robotic aircraft inspection system with Air New Zealand and, according to the manufacturer, a number of airline operators and other companies are at present considering adopting the engineering. Last year international MRO service provider SR Technics, announced a partnership with Invert Robotics to implement a robotics solution to employ the robots to carry out inspections on aircraft fuselage, wings, control surfaces and stabilisers. However, SR Technics decided not to continue robot testing for the fourth dimension beingness.
MRO specialist Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has developed a Mobile Robot for Fuselage Inspection (MORFI) which uses thermographic crack detection to audit metal fuselages. Fitted with vacuum pads to enable the robot'southward feet to cling to vertical and overhanging sections of the fuselage, Morfi is designed to inspect a number of preprogrammed points on fuselages. The robot is fitted with two coils to heat the points with electric pulses and, using infrared cameras, discover cracks as narrow equally 1mm. Futurity versions may besides be able to audit CFRP and glass-fibre reinforced aluminum.
Engine inspections
Robotic solutions are as well beingness used to facilitate engine inspections and repairs. In 2018 Rolls-Royce announced details of a series of research projects, at various stages of development, designed to utilize robots to inspect and service difficult-to-achieve part of engines while they are still attached to aircraft. These included a remote-controlled boreblending machine, fibre network 'periscope' cameras permanently embedded inside the engine, ophidian robots which could be inserted into an engine to acquit patch repairs and micro walking photographic camera 'beetles' which could work collaboratively to acquit a visual inspection of the interior of a combustion bedroom (Meet Send in the robots 17 August 2018) https://www.aerosociety.com/news/send-in-the-robots/
US engine manufacturer GE Aviation has also become interested in the potential of robotic solutions for engine maintenance. In 2017, GE took over Britain manufacturer of snake-arm robots OC Robotics. Meanwhile, AFI KLM Due east&K is reported to exist looking at using robots to help conduct last inspections of engines later overhaul to automatically compare observations with a database of known defects.
Non-destructive testing
Some other advantage of using robots for MRO inspections is that they can access confirmed spaces within aerostructures without the demand to dismantle them - non-subversive inspection (NDI). OC Robotics is working with the U.s. Air Strength Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Forcefulness Base in Dayton, Ohio to develop a NDI ophidian-arm robot system to look for damage in confined and difficult-to-admission areas within US Air Force shipping.
Other scanning equipment
Not all fuselage inspection equipment has to fly or crawl. Airbus has developed the Air-Cobot robot for inspecting aircraft from the footing which tin can combine data with a flying drone inspecting the superlative of an aircraft. AFI KLM Due east&M uses a handheld 3D scanner which can be used to inspect fuselages for hail damage and detect and record damage images. By using the scanner, engineers can reduce inspection times per square metre by 80% from 4-5 hours down to 30min. AFI KLM E&Thousand'southward Barfield subsidiary has also developed ground service equipment to perform altimeter and static system tests and inspections which can exist controlled wirelessly from an iPad.
Paint stripping
The utilise of robotic equipment is non express to inspections. Several MRO providers are now looking to robotic solutions to behave procedures which are hazardous or time-consuming for human operators. One such chore is removing old paint from aircraft prior to repainting. When conducted manually, this involves multiple spraying of chemical strippers, followed by scraping or sanding. The job is both fourth dimension-consuming and subject area to environmental and safety regulations. In the 1990s the US Air Forcefulness introduced the Big Shipping Robotic Paint Stripping (LARPS) system which uses a robotic arm to directly a high-pressure jet of water or frozen carbon dioxide to remove pigment. The organization was developed by a predecessor of Pratt & Whitney Automation (PWA) which also produces the Automated Robotic Maintenance Organization (Artillery) which can remove a wide multifariousness of coatings from jet engine components. Cleaning a jet engine involves disassembling information technology and so using a combination of chemicals and grit equalizer to make clean individual components – again a labour-intensive job that is both lengthy and potentially chancy when conducted by human operators. The ARMS system involves automatically cleaning the component inside an enclosed workcell and can reduce the time taken to clean a component, such as a compressor front associates case, from 16 hours for manual cleaning downward to 90min.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has developed CAIRE (Composite Adjustable Inspection and Repair), an automated milling robot which can repair carbon-fibre reinforced polymers on aircraft wings and fuselages. Using suction cups CAIRE can exist attached at different angles to CFRP components which it tin can scan and record whatsoever damage. The robot tin remove whatsoever damaged material and produce customised repair layers, which are manually inserted, glued and cured.
Big data
MRO providers and airlines are not introducing robots in isolation but in conjunction with the current revolution in large data and the Internet of Things (IoT). Aircraft are at present fitted with a multitude of sensors monitoring the wellness of a broad multifariousness of different systems On-lath systems are able both discover and predict faults while aircraft are in flight and transport messages to their destination airports to have engineers and parts ready every bit presently as it lands (run across https://world wide web.aerosociety.com/news/digital-takeover/). AFI KLM Eastward&K is developing systems which can predict component failures using sensor data downloaded at gates.
EasyJet tin can monitor the health of CFM56 engines via the shipping'southward Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). The low-cost carrier is likewise working with Airbus to uses its Shipping Maintenance Analysis (Airman) arrangement to predict defects before they occur.
Airbus is currently working on the 'Hangar of the Future' which combines the use of innovative technologies and IoT-connected equipment, such every bit drones, scanners, cameras and sensors, with shipping technical documentation and aircraft in-service information on its Skywise open data platform.
In 2018 MRO Drone appear that information technology was partnering with asset tracking specialists Ubisense to create Smart Hangar which uses sensors fitted to diverse assets within a hangar – including inspection drones – to provide existent fourth dimension location data. Using this system, operators can check that tools and equipment are gear up for use, in the right place and the engineers are fitting the correct parts and subassemblies, all without the need for newspaper records.
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Source: https://www.aerosociety.com/news/flying-clinging-and-crawling-using-robots-in-mro/
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