DATABASE OF DRONE FLIGHT PLANS FOR AIRCRAFT INSPECTION USING RELATIVE MAPPING

摘要

Methods for drone-assisted inspection of aircraft and other large,mobile structures are disclosed. The drone's camera identifies the mobilestructure to beinspected and an inspection routine for a portion of the mobile structure isselected froma plurality of available inspection routines. A flight plan for the dronecorresponding tothe selected inspection routine is retrieved from a database, the flight plancorrespondingto a portion of the identified mobile structure and comprising instructions tovisitpositions in three-dimensional space corresponding to the points of thestructure identifiedfor inspection in the inspection routine. The drone is operated according tothe retrievedflight plan and at one or more of the positions visited, data indicative ofthe condition ofcorresponding point of the structure is captured. Points of the structurewhere thecondition of the structure appears sub-optimal are identified and theircoordinates saved. Oncompletion of the inspection, one of more points identified as sub-optimal isrevisitedand a further, more detailed inspection is performed under the control of anoperator.