The Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC), located in Seville (Spain), has developed a new worldwide pioneering technology that allows the use of airborne robots and small unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones, for industrial contact inspections.
Specifically, CATEC has designed a new drone that is able of performing inspections that require contact, for example, with ultrasonic sensors, which “represents a great step further for the use of this type of aerial robots in different tasks, as they not only could see from the air but also touch and feel”, explains Antidio Viguria, Head of Avionics & Systems Division in CATEC.
Since 2011 CATEC has been a world leader in aerial robotics manipulation having developed the first drone in the world with advanced aerial manipulation capabilities. But now it has focused on developing a new technology that is able to maintain contact in a safe and reliable way. The drone designed performs very precise movements and includes a completely new contact device that allows decouple and dampen external perturbations that may suffer during the work done in the air. An aspect that is critical in order to keep stability while the drone is performing contact operations. The initiative is part of the AEROARMS project, led by the University of Seville and funded by the European Commission program Horizon 2020 for Research and Development.
Today drones are creating a major expectation with respect to their potential impact to people lives in the next 20 years. However, current drone technology only allows applying it in tasks that require “see” from air, while there are major opportunities for drones if they could also “touch and feel”. This aerial contact technology developed by CATEC is a major step into this vision that already allows today performing industrial contact inspections using a drone not only minimizing time and resources but also decreasing human risks working at height.
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Source: Press Release