Cobot Robotic Arm Range (Cobra) with Advanced Microwave Mapping Probe

A key feature of the B-1B aircraft is its array of sophisticated electromagnetic avionics, including radar, radar warning, and electronic countermeasures. The antennas for these systems are distributed around the aircraft from the nose cone to the tail cone. The radomes covering these systems are critical components that protect from the elements while supporting aerodynamic flight. The radomes also have rigorous specifications in transmission efficiency, boresight or beam deflection error, and sidelobe performance. With such requirements, maintenance of these radomes requires high-confidence assessment of their operational performance after repairs and refurbishment in the depot. CTG proposes a mobile cobot robotic arm range (Cobra) that is easily configurable to measure various radomes from the B-1B aircraft. The Phase II goal is to develop a dual-Cobot mobile system for microwave testing of B-1B aircraft radomes serviced at Tinker AFB. The developed Cobot Robotic Arm Range (‘Cobra’ system) will provide the depot with a significantly more advanced capability for not only verifying transmission efficiency and insertion phase delay, but also creating digital twins of the radomes for advanced analyses such as beam deflection error and sidelobe levels. Additionally, this technology will lead to a new capability to track the digital thread of B-1B radomes for understanding the mission readiness of individual platforms as well as for tracking radome health and maintenance trends across the fleet.