롤스로이스가 만들고 있는 비행기 수리용 뱀과 딱정벌레 로봇 VIDEO: Rolls-Royce is creating a fleet of robotic snakes and beetles to repair planes
Rolls-Royce is creating a fleet of robotic snakes and beetles to repair planes
By Luke Dormehl — Posted on July 18, 2018
Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s most famous engineering firms, has an unusual, but awesome idea for carrying out engine maintenance on future aircraft: using a pair of innovative robots inspired by the natural world. As part of its so-called IntelligentEngine project, researchers from Rolls-Royce have laid out their plans for snake and insect-swarm-inspired robots that will crawl inside engines to carry out inspections and perform maintenance.
via video
롤스로이스가 만들고 있는 비행기 수리용 뱀과 딱정벌레 로봇
세계에서 가장 유명한 엔지니어링 회사 중 하나인 롤스로이스는 미래의 항공기에
엔진 정비를 수행하는 것에 대해 특별하지만 놀라운 아이디어를 가지고 있다.
롤스로이스사의 연구원들은 이른바 인텔리전트 엔진(Intelligent Engine) 프로젝트의
일환으로 엔진 안으로 기어 들어가 유지보수를 할 뱀과 곤충 유도 로봇에 대한 계획을 공개했다.
황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터 큐레이터
Ki Chul Hwang, conpaper editor, curator
VIDEO:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/rolls-royce-snake-insect-robots
edited by kcontents
“We are in the process of developing a number of miniature devices that enable us to get inside the jet engine to perform inspections or repairs,” Dr. James Kell, on wing technology specialist at Rolls-Royce, told Digital Trends. “Repairs can be in the form of removing damaged material or putting material back on. To allow us to perform these repairs, we are working with an extensive network of partners to develop mechatronic probes — similar in nature to keyhole surgery techniques.”
The project is a collaboration between Rolls-Royce, Harvard University, and the University of Nottingham. The idea is that the snake-inspired robot could gain access to an engine in the manner of an endoscope, the long, thin flexible tube inserted by doctors into a patient’s body to view it from the inside. It could then deliver a swarm of tiny, miniature robots, of around 10mm in diameter, which can crawl around inside the engine.
“All of these developments — and others that we have not presented yet — are exciting achievements in their own right,” Kell continued. “For example, imagine a damaged compressor blade in an engine in Dubai, a deployed remote boreblending robot would allow a person in Derby [in the U.K.] to repair it to get the engine back in service days quicker than the current approach.”
Don’t go thinking that similar technology will be finding its way into Rolls-Royce luxury cars, though. The British company Rolls-Royce Plc. is a totally separate entity to the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It’s nice to dream, though!
“I imagine there could be some specific applications for these technologies in the auto industry if people were so inclined,” Kell said. “But the industry model is not quite as driven by long-term service agreements as yet. A lot of our technologies have their roots in the medical industry, and perhaps they may be able to be reapplied to healthcare [at some point in the future].”
kcontents
