Rolls Royce, one of the most popular engine maker is looking forward to a unique idea of introducing robots inspired by snakes and cockroaches for the purpose of inspecting and repairing the engines in the airlines.
As a part of its so-called IntelligentEngine project, researchers from the company have expressed their plans for robotic snake and insect that will crawl inside engines to carry out inspections and perform maintenance.
“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,” said Dr. James Kell, on wing technology specialist at Rolls-Royce. “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.”
These tiny SWARM robots are part of our #IntelligentEngine vision, and could one day revolutionise the way we maintain jet engines. Listen to Sebastien de Rivas from our partners Harvard University explain the pioneering technology behind them #FIA18 https://t.co/ageZf7TW8M pic.twitter.com/5O4ZUuu6Xl
— Rolls-Royce (@RollsRoyce) July 18, 2018
Generally, removing engines from wings creates a disturbance for the airlines, and thus, carrying the maintenance with the engines in its place will save time as well as money for airlines. Also, this would reduce costs for Rolls-Royce as the maintenance provider.
The mini-robots look like little scuttling beetles. In one early-stage technology, the engine maker is anticipated to use a snake-style robot to deposit a set of miniature robots into the centre of an engine to carry out a visual inspection.
“There are lots of things that aren’t ready yet, there’s more work to do yet to get this more mature,” Kell said. “The aim is to service engines within hours rather than days.”
This particular project is in collaboration between Rolls-Royce, Harvard University, and the University of Nottingham. However, these technologies are only limited to the airlines and won’t be introduced into Rolls-Royce luxury cars. The American company Rolls-Royce Plc. is a totally separate entity to the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.