Clean-R GP1: Human Robot Collaboration to Automate NAVAIR Corrosion Removal Processes

NAVAIR Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) corrosion control teams perform a critical sustainment function in ensuring naval aircraft are combat ready. Current NAVAIR corrosion control measures rely on handheld systems or large, permanent robotics systems that are costly to implement and fail to free up personnel. As a consequence, FRC personnel perform repetitive tasks that occupy excessive time and expose personnel to hazardous by-products emitted during paint and corrosion removal processes. This creates FRC backlogs and ultimately delays the return of critical aircraft components to the fleet. To address this challenge, aRoboticsCompany proposes its CLEAN-R GP1 corrosion removal robot. The CLEAN-R GP1 consists of a portable, biomimetic long-arm robot that copies the motion of human operators, records motion routines, and can repetitively execute user-recorded motions. CLEAN-R GP1 carries laser cleaning/cutting/heat treatment, pressure washing, and painting payloads for structural, vehicular, and aircraft. CLEAN-R GP1’s high “reach-to-weight” ratio allows it to access high-up, hazardous and difficult positions repetitively thanks to its high reach-to-weight ratio. Currently available arms can access a spherical volume 18-feet in radius while weighing under 90lb. This enables the arm to be safely set up by two people anywhere on a ship or shore facility using only counterweights and tiebacks. The biomimetic controller utilizes patented motion control IP to allow people with little to no training to intuitively manipulate the robot arm just like an extension of their natural arm, enabling “see and do” level of dexterity. Motion record and “playback” allows operators to program CLEAN-R GP1 for repetitive movements with only two button pushes without any interaction with code or complex interfaces. The CLEAN-R GP1 introduces patented (#US11607805B2) advanced robotic capabilities that enable enhanced stabilization and seamless biomimetic control schemes. Earlier attempts at non-joystick, non-keyboard control of robot arms have struggled to provide “natural”-feeling coordination of arm motion with operator inputs. Existing deficiencies in motion-copying arm controllers tend to induce motion sickness in operators or degrade hand-eye coordination, making these systems very uncomfortable to use for prolonged operations. Our ergonomic improvements to biomimetic control ensures that the controller “feels like” it closely follows the actual robot arm’s motions by applying range-of-motion amplification algorithms and live-feeding stationary WFOV visualization of the arm’s workspace. This reduces potentially nausea-inducing dissonance between the operator’s controller manipulations and what the operator sees that arm is doing. No commercially available arm approaches this combination of reach and portability.