Review of non-contact methods for automated aircraft inspections

Abstract

Damage on the aircraft structure can be caused by lightning strikes, hail, accidental impacts or ageing. Scratches or dents on the aircraft surface are typical indications of impact damage. General visual inspection (GVI) is the primary way in which to detect such forms of damage. The inspection process is time consuming, raises safety concerns for the inspector and is subject to variations due to human factors. Significant inspection automation remains challenging, mainly because GVI requires the critical human ability to assess anomalies. Also, damage specifications in maintenance manuals are influenced by human interpretation. Some automated tools are beginning to be available for aircraft inspection checks. However, none of them are capable of replacing the inspector judgement yet. Humans still need to manually assess the location or the data generated by the tools. Their performance is also affected by different environmental conditions, materials and the overall characteristics of the damage. This review presents the main methods for non-contact visual aircraft inspection, explaining their basic working principles and limitations. Their suitability for automation in aircraft inspection is also discussed.

Infrared defect recognition technology for composite materials

“…This technology is a new non-destructive testing technology with broad application prospects and has been applied to the inspection of aircraft components in recent years and can be used to detect defects in composite materials and metal materials, including debonding defects, water point defects, and corrosion defects [11,12]. Traditional methods for detecting defects in composite materials used on general aircraft are prone to misjudging minor defects and are unable to accurately locate defects, which can seriously affect the safety performance and maintenance efficiency of these materials [13]. Therefore, studying non-destructive infrared imaging testing technologies and establishing accurate defect detection methods and prototype non-destructive testing systems for aircraft composite materials are of great significance to improve aircraft maintenance efficiency and enhance the reliability and safety of aircraft to ensure their airworthiness [14][15][16][17].…”

Automated Aircraft Dent Inspection via a Modified Fourier Transform Profilometry Algorithm

“…Among inspection technologies that enable the use of UAVs [5], pattern recognition is at the basis of several commercial products recently introduced in MRO. It has the advantage of being easy to implement, not requiring particular hardware except for a high-definition camera, and has been successfully applied for detecting scratches and lightning damage.…”

Investigation the influence of miniaturized RFID tag sensor on coupling effect

“…It is easy for crack and fracture damage to occur under the action of cyclic load, thus reducing aircraft bearing capacity/ integrity and causing serious security risks (Al-Mukhtar, 2020). In the past few years, new nondestructive testing techniques (visual inspection method (Lafiosca and Fan, 2020), transient eddy currents (Buckley et al, 2003), magneto-optic imaging (Deng et al, 2012), etc.) have been applied to aircraft skin inspection.…”