Remote and automated inspection: status and prospects *

Abstract

Remotely or automatically operated vehicles (mobile "robots") for deploying visual and NDI inspection equipment are critically reviewed. After a brief introduction, reasons for using robots for aircraft skin inspection are reviewed. General design scenarios for robotic systems are then reviewed. Actual designs for five substantial US efforts are then described and illustrated, and the performance of these designs is discussed. Some smaller US and overseas efforts are mentioned briefly. The closing section discusses the lessons of efforts to date and suggests a course of action for the future. KEYWORDS: automated robot visual NDI inspection ANDI CIMP MACS ROSTAM AutoCrawler 1. INTRODUCTION Since 1989 at least five experimental "robots" for remote (and to some extent automated) inspection of aircraft have been built in the US. Three were built at universities (one at Wichita State 1,2 and two at Carnegie Mellon (CMU)), 6,8 one at a NASA facility (JPL), 11 and one privately (Auto...