Aviation industry professionals were confronted with the difficult and time-consuming operation of inspecting the upper fuselage of test aircraft.
These inspections require heavy equipment and put workers at risk
This is the way visual inspection procedures have been performed since the beginnings of civil aviation.
DONECLE, a French company, has strong expertise in aircraft maintenance processes, drone robotics, automation and “deep learning” computer vision algorithms.
This company has, therefore, seized this opportunity to revolutionize the way inspections have been carried out over the past 40 years.
It was for this ambitious project that DONECLE turned to the experts at PISEO for assistance in the design of the on-board inspection camera illuminator.
Machine vision systems are more and more widespread. Indeed, cameras and ready-to-use lenses are readily available on the market.
However, software to process the captured images, even very sophisticated ones, does not always succeed in sufficiently discriminating between the scenes. This is often due to poorly adapted lighting.
Well-designed LED lighting can compensate for problems with lens vignetting, colorimetry, and scene uniformity.
PISEO, therefore, supported this company in the design of a particularly efficient lighting system.
The aim was to help compensate for vignetting and colorimetry issues due to the camera lens and thus the overall performance of the inspection system.
Thanks to this product and PISEO’s support, DONECLE is now the worldwide leader of automated aircraft visual inspection based on drone technology. The company offers a unique solution combining a 100% automated drone with advanced image analysis algorithms for the detection of damage to the exterior surface of aircraft.
The illuminator developed with PISEO now allows it to guarantee consistent image quality, regardless of exterior light conditions.
· Search for suitable LED components.
· Optical design of potential solutions.
. Simulation performance comparisons with Light Tools software
· Prototyping of the chosen solution.
· Characterization of the optical performance of the prototype in the PISEO lab.
Illuminator for on-board inspection camera
