Deployable Track Robotic Vehicle for Wing Box Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current robotic vehicles face difficulties in accessing and maneuvering within confined spaces, such as aircraft wing boxes, due to limited size and the presence of structural members like stringers, which hinder smooth movement and operation.
Innovation Solution
A robotic vehicle equipped with a set of tracks and attachment units that deploy and secure to structural members, allowing for stable and smooth movement within these spaces by aligning and engaging with corresponding portions of the structure, enabling forward and reverse direction traversal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a robotic vehicle is made small enough to enter a wing box through an access port, then it can access confined spaces, but moving it over inner skin panels and structures becomes more difficult and infeasible
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic vehicle's movement system is segmented into multiple components: a base, deployable tracks, and attachment units. The tracks can be extended forward to bridge gaps over structures, while attachment units with engagement members can connect to structural members like stringers, dividing the movement challenge into manageable segments rather than requiring the entire vehicle to clear obstacles in one motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic vehicle transitions from planar movement on flat surfaces to three-dimensional navigation by deploying tracks that extend forward and attachment units that engage with vertical or inclined structural members. This adds a vertical dimension to movement capability, allowing the vehicle to climb over stringers and navigate the complex 3D geometry of the wing box interior.
2Ease of operation
If traditional robotic arms are used to perform operations within a wing box, then operations can be performed, but their limited reach prevents certain types of operations
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic vehicle employs dynamically deployable tracks that can extend forward to increase reach. Rather than using a fixed-length robotic arm, the system dynamically adjusts its effective length by extending tracks when needed to reach distant or hard-to-access areas within the wing box, then retracting them when not needed to maintain a compact profile.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a robotic vehicle moves through a confined space with structures, then it can access difficult areas, but the structures impede smooth movement
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment units act as intermediaries between the robotic vehicle and the structural members. Rather than having the vehicle's body directly contact and be impeded by stringers and other structures, the attachment units with their engagement members serve as mediating elements that connect to these structures, enabling the vehicle to use them as support points for smooth, controlled movement throughout the confined space.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for moving a robotic vehicle relative to a structure. A set of tracks associated with a base of the robotic vehicle may be deployed. A number of attachment units associated with the set of tracks may be aligned with a corresponding portion of a number of structural members of the structure in a forward sequence as the set of tracks is deployed. The number of attachment units may be secured to the corresponding portion of the number of structural members in the forward sequence.