Rapid Aircraft Inspection and Digital Twin Generation

To address the Air Force's need for a reliable method to inspect aircraft exteriors and combat the mounting maintainer shortfall, Ultraview is continuing the development of the Ultraview Autonomous Inspection Drone (UAID), a new autonomous, LiDAR-based Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for General Visual Inspection (GVI) of aircraft, providing accurate detection and identification, and precise 3D localization/measurement of possible damages. UAID is designed and manufactured in the USA using Ultraview-patented LiDAR-based navigation for precise localization in any environment, an aircraft-optimized camera, and damage detection algorithms to identify exterior damages. UAID is an in-field, noncontact system requiring access to an aircraft that is free of surrounding objects. Ultraview has successfully developed, tested, and demonstrated a fully functional (TRL-6) UAID system in a realistic industrial environment. In Phase I, Ultraview will identify high-value modifications to the proprietary autonomous navigation stack in order to operate around a C5 and identify the approval pathways.