Foundations for Teleoperation and Motion Planning Towards Robot-Assisted Aircraft Fuel Tank Inspection

Abstract

The aviation industry relies on continuous inspections to ensure infrastructure safety, particularly in confined spaces like aircraft fuel tanks, where human inspections are labor-intensive, risky, and expose workers to hazardous exposures. Robotic systems present a promising alternative to these manual processes but face significant technical and operational challenges, including technological limitations, retraining requirements, and economic constraints. Additionally, existing prototypes often lack open-source documentation, which restricts researchers and developers from replicating setups and building on existing work. This study addresses some of these challenges by proposing a modular, open-source framework for robotic inspection systems that prioritizes simplicity and scalability. The design incorporates a robotic arm and an end-effector equipped with three RGB-D cameras to enhance the inspection process. The primary contribution lies in the development of decentralized software modules that facilitate integration and future advancements, including interfaces for teleoperation and motion planning. Preliminary results indicate that the system offers an intuitive user experience, while also enabling effective 3D reconstruction for visualization. However, improvements in incremental obstacle avoidance and path planning inside the tank interior are still necessary. Nonetheless, the proposed robotic system promises to streamline development efforts, potentially reducing both time and resources for future robotic inspection systems.

Keywords

• aircraft
• fuel tank
• robotic inspection
• ROS 2
• MRO
• teleoperation