Courtesy Photo | Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Pilot-in-Command Daniel Jennings of the Naval...... read more read more
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What do you do when the Navy’s ships, facilities, and other assets require regular inspection, maintenance and upgrades, but you have a limited amount of resources, personnel, and a novel coronavirus pandemic environment?
You perform inspections virtually, of course!
Inspections are vital as they provide decision makers the data they need to properly sustain these platforms. However, those inspections can be time-consuming, costly, and in some cases dangerous to perform. Moreover, responding to the pandemic necessitates limiting travel as much as possible.
How do drones fit in?
NIWC Pacific’s Collected Autonomously, Naval Data Identifying Discrepancies (CANDID) project has developed a commercially available unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for autonomous shipboard inspection allowing for faster, cheaper, and safer inspections and often better data for decision makers. CANDID’s first test event was at Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System (AAMDS) Romania and the UAV system received a Bravo Zulu (compliments) from Lt. Matthew Georges, the site combat systems officer who organized the test.
Routine inspections require checking the same items every time the inspection is performed. That routine lends itself to automation both in terms of saving manpower and in terms of being able to compare how conditions change over time. A UAV is an ideal tool to able to quickly fix and safely examine hard-to-access spaces that could be risky for Sailors.
Aegis Ashore sites provide missile defense against ballistic missiles and the centerpiece of such a facility is the SPY radar system. While inspecting the radar, Sailors have to climb ladders, but their rigging gear might not attach to the ladders. Using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) keeps the Sailor out of harm’s way and gives more vantage points than available just from the ladder.
Once collected, the data can be analyzed by personnel, regardless of their location. Planning personnel on the other side of globe back in the United States can virtually tour and inspect the facility as if they were there. And even on site, it can be a time saver.
After seeing an initial model of the Aegis Ashore facility, Georges immediately put it to use. Whereas before Georges needed to instruct contractors regarding the site, and safety procedures, now he could just show them the 3D model and they were ready to go. The new process turns out to be safer, quicker, and prevents unnecessary downtime for the radar system.
What’s NIWC Pacific’s role?
There are a number of UAV projects at NIWC Pacific, as there are across the Navy. This is largely due to the Center’s longstanding internal collaboration through the Reverse Engineering, Science and Technology, for Obsolescence, Repair, and Evaluation (RESTORE) Lab, another NIWC Pacific effort. These efforts began with the Light Distance and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning of ship interiors for configuration management, but naturally grew to include UAVs to fill the capability gap of scanning hard-to-reach places such as the mast of a ship. It is the close relationship with the fleet support department that is helping the research and development team identify capability gaps and guide future development, plus access to the ships themselves provides for the best testing. The RESTORE Lab is regularly called on to document the condition of a system and develop a process by which to maintain or upgrade it.
Knowing the current condition is always the first step to such a task. Historically, one turns to blueprints or other forms of documentation. Often those can be incomplete, inaccurate, or simply nonexistent. Further blueprints are often inherently 2D, meaning they contain only a slice of all available information.
Instead, using 3D scanning technologies, the engineers at the RESTORE Lab are now able to quickly and accurately capture the 3D condition of the asset in question and then perform their design and planning work remotely from the data. Over time this has grown into a number of different capabilities that have given engineers the ability to scan small handheld objects, individual rooms and compartments, or even entire ships or buildings.
The less time a ship spends in port undergoing inspections, repairs, and upgrades, the longer it is available the support the Navy mission. Improving inspection capabilities and improving the quality of the data presented to decision makers impacts the readiness of the Navy.
For UAV inspections specifically, the benefits are clear, but the Department of Defense is rightly very concerned about the security of flying recording devices — this, in turn, has made security managers reluctant to even consider such inspections. But as the CANDID team has demonstrated, direct engagement can uncover and directly address those concerns, allowing for the establishment of a secure UAV program. So, look up! Is it a bird, a plane? It just may be a drone!
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2021 19:21 |
| Story ID: | 388694 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 280 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NIWC Pacific’s CANDID project: Faster, cheaper, safer physical inspections, by Patric Petrie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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