Airbus is one of the companies most heavily invested in new technologies, and while for months we've seen 3D printing as one of its main focuses, today we can see how they are also showing interest in the world of drones. This time, as the company has just announced, they will use these unmanned aircraft for damage inspections on their fleet of planes.
The true purpose of this program will be to take photographs and videos of the upper part of any aircraft. As a side note, custom software is being developed for this purpose , enabling the drone to perform a pre-programmed flight completely autonomously and without the need for an operator to control it, although supervision will still be required.
Airbus will develop its own autonomous drones for the inspection of its aircraft
During this flight, the drone will move over sensitive areas of the aircraft, taking high-quality photographs. These images will then be sent to a computer where an operator can analyze whether the aircraft's structure has suffered any damage, deterioration, or paint defects. In addition to providing real-time monitoring, these photos will be used to create a 3D digital model of the aircraft's surface, which will then be analyzed in detail.
One of Airbus's main concerns in this project is the time required for the drone to do its job. Apparently, during the first tests, they have managed to take all the necessary photographs in just 10 or 15 minutes , a time that is significantly less than the two hours it took operators using traditional methods.