Italian state-owned aerospace company Leonardo has collaborated with Stellantis-owned Comau on cognitive robotics, advanced vision systems and AI.
They have created an AI system to autonomously inspect aircraft vehicles, including helicopter blades up to seven meters. By automating aircraft inspection, Comau and Leonardo hope to improve the safety and efficiency of aircraft.
The system has been tested on-site in Anagni, Italy.
Combining AI with advanced vision systems, Comau and Leonardo’s system is able to detect the structural integrity of an aircraft vehicle with 100% accuracy.
Comau and Leonardo hope that this system can help aircraft inspectors manage their time with ease and upskill their positions.
Introducing robotics into aircraft inspection can create a safer workplace environment for inspectors by making them less likely to be in physically dangerous scenarios.
“Comau’s commitment to the design and development of cutting-edge technologies and solutions for elaborate processes allows us to extend the benefits of advanced automation to mission-critical sectors such as aerospace,” stated Comau’s chief of advanced automation solutions, Nicole Clement.
“The collaboration with Leonardo gives us the opportunity to extend our innovation reach by developing a smarter, data-driven inspection system that provides an objective assessment of key structural elements within a standardised, automated and highly accurate process,” she said.
In its 2023 thematic intelligence report into robotics, data and analysis company GlobalData forecasts that the robotics market will be worth over $200bn worldwide by 2030, having achieved a CAGR of 17% between 2022 and 2030.
The exoskeleton and logistics market will see the highest levels of growth, according to GlobalData.
In addition to this collaboration, Leonardo started a military space cloud architecture project in February on request by the Italian government.
The project is hoping to establish a strategic data system that combines AI, cloud and high-performance computing. Named MILSCA, the project is expected to run for two years.