Tech Juice 2511- Part I: Impact of Distruptive Technologies on Aviation Mainteanance
Introduction
1. Disruption in military doctrines by technology is not new. We have constantly been subjected to it. However, the pace of disruption due to what we call Industry 4.0 technologies is rapid and far-reaching. Humans with our inherited genetics can be expected to first apply these technologies to war. We usually make the mistake that the nature of warfare is relatively static and technology only refines and improves the instruments of war. Industry 4.0 technologies will not just improve the instruments of war but change the very nature of war itself. Even preceding these technologies, many new facets of warfare, such as electronic, cyber and information warfare, have already become prevalent.
2. I have covered some technologies in Tech Juice articles 2501-2510. These are not exhaustive and attempt to give a flavor of what we are talking about. The impact of equipment maintenance and availability is a major enhancer that will immediately impact the armed forces. Availability only strengthens an armed force and therefore has its peace dividend. I will cover this happy part in the first series of articles from now on. Thereafter, I will cover the impact on equipment profiles of armed forces, based on the trends of modern conflicts. I hope these thoughts would not only help industry plan for future projects for the armed forces, but also the highly regimented mind of the military to augment their manned tanks, artillery pieces, fighter aircraft, frigates and submarines these technologies.
Background
3. I will cover some background to make this article stand-alone. A deeper dive into the technologies mentioned here can be done with Tech Juice Articles 2501-2510 if the reader desires.
4. The decoupling from the labour arbitrage of developing nations is a strategic direction developed economies have chosen in their technological development. The dwindling birth rates have added to their concerns that foreign sweatshops are not a solution to retain dominance, as eventually they benefit the local economy. The focus has shifted enormously to robotics, automation, swarms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, artificial wombs, gene editing, biological implants, etc. This renewed focus indicates not just decoupling from the labor arbitrage of developing nations but also the need for young and large populations for economic growth.
5. Bespoke Products. We normally think of factories as assembly lines that churn out large volumes of the same goods. It is not unusual for distributors to demand a minimum order quantity and volumes for economic viability. In Germany, a car factory has been designed entirely using robots that make cars. Nothing new so far. However, in this factory, the swarm of robots are just given the design of the car and they collaborate with each other to make the car. Each design is digitally engineered to be unique, and no two cars are similar. This is not science fiction but a real factory that is economically viable and in great demand. Think of the possibilities.
7. Parts Auto-aliasing. Many organisations have a facial recognition system-based security layer at the entrance. The system learns your face from key measurements and can recognise you with a cap, without a cap, with different caps, with or without glasses, different angles of your face. This technology is a low-hanging fruit. It can scan thousands of digital drawings and automatically alias parts for inventory optimisation. This can replace the present practice of identifying aliases through part/stock numbers. The manual system is so messed up that we have allocated multiple stock numbers to the same parts, and surprisingly, the same stock numbers to multiple parts. We can obviate this mess with image recognition technologies, which use artificial intelligence and machine learning.
8. Automated Inspections. IR4.0 technologies can be applied for automated inspections of equipment that are not wired with sensors and do not have a means to self-diagnose and communicate with a digital twin. Let's imagine an array of cameras in each gate or shelter looking at a parked aircraft. An AI system can tell if the airframe is fit to fly as much as a human who eyeballs it in the name of doing an airframe daily inspection. Ball or snake robots can be trained to inspect the aero engine face or the exhaust area and the AI system can tell us whether the engine is fit to fly, as much as a human who eyeballs the compressor or exhaust area before declaring an aeroengine fit to fly in the name of doing an aero engine daily inspection. A technician could be given smart glasses for the AI system to communicate an anomaly that it would like a human expert to look at. This way we could use a technician with limited training (typically 4-5 months) to legally clear an expensive aircraft.
9. Operating Level Maintenance Automation. Cameras can be permanently mounted on the hangar frames for deeper airframe inspections and a record of faults. Replenishments of fuel and even weapons for military operations can be achieved through robotic replenishment systems and AI-enabled mules. These mules can ferry fuel and weapons from the storage areas to the forward supply points of operating areas traversing difficult terrain conditions. Self driving technologies will be a game changer for logistics. We can have an AI enabled mule for ferrying heavy parts from storage areas to operating areas without human assist 24x7. Flying an unmanned support drone or a helicopter would be much easier than a self driving car and we could see ubiquitous use of these as many of the online retailers are already doing. Warehouse maintenance through robots doing both stacking and picking roles can be come common in the military.
10. Digital Twins. One of the main challenges in aviation is to estimate the life of a part, assembly or, for that matter, an entire aero engine or aircraft. Most aircraft already have extensive health measurement instrumentation and generate a significant amount of data in each sortie. This data is presently used to observe if there was a latent failure. Sometimes it is also possible to identify deterioration in performance, anticipate failures and engage in predictive maintenance. Performance issues can be addressed across the fleet through predictive maintenance schedules of the fleet. Bespoke maintenance for a particular aircraft and aeroengine also becomes a possibility. Avoiding over-maintenance due to conservative preventive maintenance schedules will immediately result in improvements in reliability and availability of aircraft. Computers now can self-learn from a data lake fed live with non-intrusive instrumentation. Computers can now develop a digital twin of the aero engine/aircraft and provide a bespoke maintenance plan for each piece.
11. Swarm Technologies. The aviation industry is heavily dependent on tug drivers for positioning aircraft at gates and hangars at the operational level. The cost of a trained tow tug driver can be prohibitivbe and will only keep increasing. The aviation industry has moved on for some time now, with tow bar less tow tugs which are controlled by a human. With self driving technologies that have matured, it is definitely possible to make a tow tug that can follow a human and ensure that collisions are avoided by LIDAR sensors. With swarm technologies maturing, it is possible for multiple autonomous tow tugs to collaboratively tow aircraft and position them with a general instruction on the position all aircraft. Reversing an aircraft is a breeze for these technologies. The tugs would go automatically to their charging stations much like the autonomous vacuum cleaners that have become common place at homes.
Conclusion
12. In this first part of a series of airticles we have seen the applications of IR4.0 tech to aviation maitnenace. We will progressively examine the impact on warfare and the consequent impact on equipment profiles of armed forces in the subsequent parts.
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