ExpleoCassie Showcases the Potential for Drones to Speed Up Quality Inspection Processes at Aerospace Manufacturers

Expleo, a French-based technology and consulting firm, presented its latest proposition for the aerospace industry at the Paris Air Show. ExpleoCassie (Collaborative and Autonomous System for Surveillance and Intervention on Emergency) looks to help aerospace manufacturers speed up and improve their quality control processes with the deployment of a swarm of drones.

Aerospace manufacturers continue to struggle to reduce their production backlogs and innovations that can enable teams to perform tasks quicker, but not risk falling afoul of regulations should be welcomed by the industry.

Machine vision tools have long been a solution to help manufacturers improve quality control processes by avoiding human error and reducing scrap rates. Drones provide the opportunity to perform image-based inspections on a far greater scale than parts traveling in front of stationary cameras. Expleo’s drones can be programmed to collect images of the partially completed aircraft that can then be analyzed to confirm that parts have been assembled correctly and there are no signs of any defects.

The drones from Expleo can work autonomously and collaboratively, collecting images and, in addition, performing the inspections quicker than humans thanks to their speed and nimbleness. Furthermore, the drones will be better suited to carrying out inspections at height and in confined spaces of partially assembled aircraft, which will undoubtedly save time.

Expleo does more than provide drones. The company helps customers prepare flight paths and transfers the images to applications hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud. Inspection teams can receive images in real time and be fed to the appropriate applications and documents. Working in this manner reduces time to identify defects and emerging issues.

With additional expertise in, among other things, autonomous systems, Machine Learning (ML), and image and video processing, Expleo is looking to embed itself in aerospace manufacturers’ inspection processes.

The potential for drone swarms to collect images to support quality inspection is alluring, but it’s not as simple as buying drones and expecting a pilot to get started in the manufacturing facility. Aerospace manufacturers will need to devise a change management plan that considers the impact on people, the quality inspection process, and, of course, that the actions remain compliant with regulations.

When it comes to people, manufacturers will need to assess whether they upskill members of the quality inspection teams to pilot the drones or bring in dedicated drone pilots. If upskilling is the approach chosen, then training and certification programs will need to be implemented. This is not only so that staff can launch a drone swarm, but they can also be appraised on the safety aspects and operational aspects of introducing drones into the facility.

While individuals are being trained or pilots are being resourced, manufacturers will need to identify and record obstacles (beams, cranes, etc.) to factor into the drone’s flight paths. Other factors to consider include the potential impact of electromagnetic interference from wireless networks and machinery inside the facility and, like the introduction of machine vision tools on production lines, whether there are lighting issues that will impact the quality of the images collected.

Members of the quality inspection team will need to ensure that the data collection processes certainly match and, all being well, improve the inspection processes. The inspection teams will need to partner with their counterparts in Information Technology (IT) to ensure that the data feeds perform as envisioned and the images can be integrated with industrial software applications, such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MESs), Quality Management Systems (QMSs), etc.

But as always with aerospace, regulatory compliance overrides everything. Aerospace manufacturers will need to make sure any use of drones complies with authorities such as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

With its expertise in areas such as autonomous systems and image processing, Expleo is well placed to support aerospace manufacturers from  initial concept stage to having drones operating inside facilities. If aerospace manufacturers lay the groundwork, a partnership with Expleo can accelerate the inspection process and support achieving broader production-related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).