Robotic Assistants For Aircraft Inspectors-MECHANICAL

SEMINAR ON Robotic Assistants For Aircraft Inspectors :The Aeronautic industry is flying high with its latest development in technologies. But the nagging feature of these aircrafts is the inadequate repair and maintenance works done manually by inspectors and this has resulted in many tragic accidents. Hence in order to help these inspectors, the Robotic Aircraft inspectors were brought in who can do almost all the jobs done by their human counter parts, at the same time maintaining a very high quality and reliability in service.

Pressurization and de-pressurization of an airplane during each take off and landing cycle causes its body to expand and contract like an inflating balloon and deflating balloon. Cycling thus induces fatigue at the rivets that hold the aircraft skin to its frame, resulting in the growth of radial cracks. On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines flight 243, lost a section of its upper fuselage skin from the floor line on the left side to the window line just behind the passenger door. There were numerous injuries and one cabin attendant was thrown out, the airplane landed intact except for the initial damages.An investigation team attributed the accident to a previously unanticipated failure mode now called “multiple site damage”. ‘MSD’ means two small cracks that joined to make one big crack. The crack growth rate is exponential in crack length.In the aftermath of “Aloha 88” a research program with a significant focus on inspection technology was formed to generate and analyze scenarios for robotic deployment of instrumentation to inspect for cracks, to design a robotic system, and to prototype an initial system to demonstrate the system’s feasibility. US prototypes have demonstrated all the technical capabilities needed to implement a robotically assisted inspection system: Measurement, Manipulation, Mobility and Monitoring

This paper deals with the latest in Robotic Inspectors like Automated Non-destructive Inspector (ANDI), Crown Inspection Mobile Platform (CIMP) etc. Also brief discussion about prototype algorithms that detect surface cracks, surface corrosion and subsurface corrosion will be done.

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