ST Engineering Authorized to Perform Aircraft Inspection Using Drones
ST Engineering will be using its in-house developed drone solution, DroScan to carry out General Visual Inspection (GVI) during aircraft maintenance at its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Singapore after its Aerospace sector received authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). This is the first-ever authorization granted by CAAS for the use of unmanned aerial systems to perform GVI on Singapore-registered aircraft. With this authorization, ST Engineering can apply its DroScan solution on approved aircraft models such as the Airbus A320 family.
An end-to-end aircraft external general inspection solution, DroScan leverages automation and smart analytics capabilities to bring about higher efficiency and greater workplace safety during aircraft maintenance work. The Group had over the past one year demonstrated the solution’s capabilities and benefits through a number of successful trials with participating airline customers including Air New Zealand. By using drones to physically carry out visual inspections, DroScan eliminates the need to set up bulky ground equipment such as boom-lifts and workstands for inspectors to climb up and down during manual inspections.Inspectors can instead conduct indirect GVI using live video feed and post-flight images captured by the drones. Captured images can be fed through algorithms that detect and classify defects to assist the inspectors in the review process.
Lim Serh Ghee, President of Aerospace, ST Engineering, said, “DroScan combines ST Engineering’s expertise in MRO, unmanned solutions and engineering skills to enhance the way we carry out aircraft inspection and maintenance in a safe and efficient manner. This is one of the many initiatives that we will rollout progressively to digitally transform our hangars and facilities into a smarter environment, which will allow our customers to better enjoy value added services such as up-to-speed or even real time update of their aircraft maintenance progress.”
In addition to smart analytics capability, DroScan is incorporated with safety features that could allow for future operations within Singapore’s civil aerodromes. These features include precise localisation system to navigate in GPS-denied environment, power tethered system for extended flight duration and controlled safety template, multiple sensors for obstacles detection and geo-fencing to prevent the drone from straying out of flight template.
“CAAS is excited by ST Engineering’s efforts to use unmanned aerial systems to perform visual inspections on Singapore-registered aircraft. We commend ST Engineering on this initiative to leverage digital technology to enhance productivity and effectiveness in its operations. Such innovations are in line with our vision to digitally transform the aviation industry. Especially, in this current COVID-19 environment, we hope to see an impetus for more of such novel solutions from our Singapore aviation companies”, said Kevin Shum, Director-General of CAAS.
Moving forward, ST Engineering aims to extend the application of DroScan to more aircraft models, including wide body platforms,as well as develop new robotic solutions for inspections that involve contact-based measurements.
