AR to Save Time in Aircraft Maintenance

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The dynamic and highly variable nature of the aircraft inspection environment brings challenges to implementing object and photo recognition to determine discrepancies in aircraft harness installation. These variances in the environment could include different lighting conditions, personnel and support equipment movement and multiple aircraft configurations. 

Maintainer errors can be highly expensive or life-threatening. Moreover, time-to-maintain is often insufficient to support aircraft readiness. 

Augmented reality (AR) technology can now help the US Navy in such missions. A new solution – Simplified, Intelligent AR Quality Assurance (SIA-QA) – will support aircraft wiring maintenance for the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft. The  AR-based, automatic QA system combines instruction and AI-based performance assessment in a single solution to help inspectors rapidly observe “as-is” versus “should be” conditions to speed installation and increase accuracy.

AVATAR Partners has received a contract to provide its solution for the US Navy. “Understanding the expected boundaries of the environment within the AR experience will allow the solution to capture and adjust through the use of machine learning,” according to the company.

The system includes refresher training for aircraft maintenance technicians who have completed tours of duty away from the system for which they were trained. Applying military-grade augmented reality provides the resources needed to establish critical training regimens that support a risk-managed framework for preparation and deployment, a company official told industryweek.com.