Mobile Robotic Sanding System

GrayMatter Robotics proposes to develop an AI-powered Mobile Robotic Sanding System for aircraft maintenance and repair operations. This proposed system addresses the pressing defense need to boost the productivity of a shrinking Air Force workforce and increase the availability of mission-critical Air Force assets. Sanding is a major bottleneck in aircraft maintenance and is currently performed by hand. The proposed system will make improvements in terms of speed, quality, and a reduction of hazardous, tedious, and ergonomically challenging manual work. Fixed robotic systems, like those used in the automotive industry, do not work for high-mix scenarios, where there are a wide variety of different part types to process. The proposed system leverages our commercially proven, flexible, AI-powered robotic sanding systems developed for customers with high-mix applications. The proposed single adaptation will mount our existing robotic system on a self-driving mobile base that can autonomously reposition itself, making it possible to process an entire aircraft. The expertise of GMR lies in the development of AI systems applied to off-the-shelf hardware that can be used by a shop-floor operator. In addition to technology development capabilities, we have strong teams in marketing, sales, deployment, and customer support. These teams will help us in transitioning the proposed solution into tangible results for the Air Force.