Augmented Reality tool for the facilitation of the UAV flight inspection process during aircraft de-icing as a maintenance procedure
Panagiotis Stavropoulos, Lydia Athanasopoulou, Alexios Papacharalampopoulos, Ioannis Kanellopoulos, Dimitris Mourtzis
Abstract
During the past few years, industry has begun to recognize the operational and economic value of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operations. Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), UAVs etc. are being continuously applied within Industry 4.0 applications due to their major capabilities on the optimization of modern manufacturing concepts. The scope of this paper is the development of an AR application to support the inspection process performed by UAVs during the de-icing procedure on aircrafts before take-off. A mixed reality interface is being designed for providing virtual feedback to the operator regarding the position and extension of ice on the aircraft. The main objective is to significantly reduce the inspection time and increase the accuracy of detecting ice through an immersive environment, exceeding the standard time consuming pre-flight methods relying on visual inspection. To broaden applicability, two different development strategies are being implemented: for Android devices and for Microsoft HoloLens Head-Mounted Display. Both scenarios have been tested in a mixed reality to evaluate the performance of the Augmented Reality application.