According to Blue Skies Drones London Heathrow, Singapore Changi and Altlanta Hartsfield-Jackson have already integrated drones into their maintenance and inspection protocols to identify Foreign Object Debris, surface damage or to improve the accuracy of their routine safety checks.

Airfield lighting

Photometric tests could be carried out by drones either for periodic mandatory reporting or to validate light performance. Hong Kong International Airport is automating its Airfield Ground Lighting Scanning and Inspection operations by using an advanced high-throughput scanning machine which is installed on a vehicle as well as a remote computer server.

By using this vehicle that carries out an integrity inspection of the AGL at a speed of 50kmh, the airport has been able to reduce inspection time from 90 minutes to 15 minutes. Beyond this proof of concept, this could unlock an opportunity to increase drastically the number of aircraft movements per hour.

Runway and taxiway maintenance

Light surface cleaning according to obstruction type, dust, snow, rubber from aircraft tires or basic field testing could be performed by wheeled or flying robots able through computer vision to locate and reach specific points. Unexpected scenarios would then be handed over to technicians for further analysis.

www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST 53