L3Harris, Gecko Robotics unveil ‘extended reality’ 3D plane models for maintenance
“The 360-degree XR environment allows engineers to assess the health of a platform, regardless of where the fleet is located,” according to a statement from the companies.
A 3D model of a plane constructed by images taken from a Gecko Robotics drone. (Image courtesy of Gecko Robotics.)
WASHINGTON — L3Harris Technologies and Pennsylvania-based start-up Gecko Robotics today announced a new partnership aimed at advancing an “extended reality capability” designed to assist aircraft maintainers remotely check on a plane’s condition.
“The 360-degree XR environment allows engineers to assess the health of a platform, regardless of where the fleet is located,” according to a statement from the companies. “This allows offsite inspections to occur without a full traveling crew, improving operational efficiency and reducing overhead costs. The high-resolution imagery also improves inspection quality by detecting issues invisible to the human eye under standard lighting conditions.”
Gecko Robotics, a relative newcomer to the defense industrial base, was founded in 2013. The company’s robots, capable of scaling vertical surfaces of planes and ships, are designed to detect integrity flaws in a craft’s structure. The US Navy and Air Force are among the company’s current customers.
The new technology Gecko will advance with L3Harris uses “10,000 high-definition images” of an aircraft’s surface that is then transformed into a “precise 3D model of the aircraft’s physical characteristics.” That model can then be examined by engineers and other maintainers who may not physically be in the same location as the aircraft.
“A year of prototype testing with Gecko in collaboration with multiple military customers has identified numerous applications for this technology, including virtual visual inspections, configuration review and robust defect identification,” said Sean Ling, general manager of modernization and modifications at L3Harris.
“The readiness and modernization of military aircraft is a critical ‘line of effort’ for the Air Force,” said Jake Loosararian, co-founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics. “Gecko’s partnership with L3Harris will deploy world class technology to solve real problems, putting us at the forefront of helping the U.S. military build, maintain and modernize the assets necessary to defend our nation.”
The use of drones — both wall-scaling and flying — has been a growing trend in the defense industrial base to keep tabs on the status of planes, ships, shipyards and other pieces of critical infrastructure.
For example, officials from the Royal Canadian Navy, drone manufacturer Skydio and software developer Qii.AI last year during the Sea Air Space exposition all described the advantages of having small drones monitor critical assets by accessing locations and vantages points otherwise inaccessible to humans and spot virtually undetectable structural flaws.
