Hello Classmates,
The article that I chose this week is sourced from AviationWeek (and an accompanying Reuters' Feature on YouTube) and I chose it because it highly aligns with my intended course development
project and it addresses the challenges that I have observed in the work
setting as a maintenance engineering officer.
I am a Captain the Canadian Air Force and a big part of my
raison d’etre is to optimize business processes to ensure more wrench-turning
time can be applied by technicians to the aircraft. This will ultimately help our mission
statement which is to delivery tactical air power anywhere and anytime.
Unfortunately, I have witnessed too many wasted efforts dedicated to awaiting
material to enact aircraft repairs, or awaiting support equipment and tooling
so when I read about the course project to develop a sensor to fit a perceived
need as it relates to a management practice, operational policy of need for
safety, efficiency and effectiveness, I thought that the use of an UAV equipped
with the pertinent sensors would be an ideal pursuit!
The article I found
on google actually stated that a budget airline in the U.K. named EasyJet is
spearheading this very same initiative to pursue the use of an unmanned
aircraft to inspect its fleet of aircrafts. Its listed benefits are that it
will reduce overall wait time for passengers as UAVs will more efficiently
carry out inspections versus traditional/manned methods. There are also efforts
gained as there would be no need to have to tow the aircraft into hangars which
is a time-intensive ordeal. EasyJet has
contracted with two U.K. companies called Blue Bear Systems Research and
Createc to modify off-the-shelf UAVs and equip them with intelligent sensors to
perform stand-off distance inspections and utilize a high-definition camera
with a laser-system for navigation indoors and collision avoidance. There was
mention of GPS capability but geared for outdoor use only. The youtube video from Reuter's mentions the use of a LIDAR sensor which would be used to help with navigation and range-finding.
The initial design is for a semi-autonomous system but the
ultimate intent is for a fully autonomous vehicle which will work straightaway after
unpacking the box. The concept of design
is that the vehicle will know the aircraft it will inspect via a database and
that the based on pre-determined known points on the aircraft will calculate its
pre-determined path and carry on its thorough inspection.
The vehicle’s specifications is currently 8.8 lbs and
measures 10.8 ft-sq but airlines want it to become even lighter to prevent and
minimize any potential contact damage. The goal is to reduce it by half its
current weight which will make it a lot more portable as well.
I like the fact that this UAV concept is being designed as a
tool to complement existing maintenance technicians to help speed up their
processes and NOT to replace them. I see
this becoming an industry norm and would love to see it applied to military maintenance
organizations – I wonder if anyone has seen anything like this implemented in
the USAF, USMC or USN?
I look forward to your thoughts and discussions!
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| EasyJet Prototype - UAV to inspect fleet! |
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