Project

ROBAIR - Development of a robotic system for the inspection of aircraft wings and fuselage

Funding origin:

European

STRIA Roadmaps:

Vehicle design and manufacturing (VDM)

Transport infrastructure (INF)

Transport mode:

Airborne

Transport sectors:

Passenger transport

Freight transport

Duration:

Start date: 01/05/2001,

End date: 01/04/2003

Status: Finished

Funding details:

Overview

Background & policy context:

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Regular and periodic non-destructive testing (NDT) is mandatory for civil airlines throughout the world. Most inspection is currently carried out manually, such that operator fatigue can lead to mistakes. Increasingly, airlines require a hard copy of inspection results to eliminate operator subjectivity. Furthermore, the requirement for 100% inspection of vital structural features is becoming more commonplace and the slow rate of manual inspection is therefore prohibitively expensive. The cost of NDT is increased further where X-ray inspection is used, since components to be inspected must be removed from the aircraft.

As well as using conventional NDT sensors, the project involved development in the following technologies; acoustic camera, phased arrays, thermography, dry contact ultrasound and eddy currents. It was anticipated that the prototype system develo

Objectives:

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The objective of this programme was to develop a robotic inspection system, which would walk over large areas of an aircraft structure, carrying out automatic data collection and interpretation to identify all structural faws, without the need to dismantle components.

Methodology:

The multi-tasking robotic NDT system for aircraft inspection was developed by the consortium in six steps:

System specifcation and provision of defect samples of aircraft wings and fuselage
Development of NDT techniques
Development of NDT sensors and systems for deployment by the robotic system
Development of a NDT scanner module
Development of a mobile
System integration and testing

Development of a robotic system for the inspection of aircraft wings and fuselage

Overview

Background & policy context:

Objectives:

Methodology:

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