Wikipedia
Air-Cobot (Aircraft Inspection enhanced by smaRt & Collaborative rOBOT) is a French research and development project of a wheeled collaborative mobile robot able to inspect aircraft during maintenance operations. Led by Akka Technologies, this multi-partner project involves research laboratories and industry. Research around this prototype was developed in three domains: autonomous navigation, nondestructive testing and human-robot collaboration.
Air-Cobot is presented as the first robot able to perform visual inspections of aircraft. Inspection robots using other types of sensors have been considered before, such as the European project Robair. Since the launch of the project, other solutions based on image processing began to be developed, such as EasyJet with a drone or the swarm of drones from Toulouse company Donéclé. Currently, the Air-Cobot robot can inspect the lower parts of an aircraft. If the project continues, in prospect is the coupling with a drone to inspect an aircraft's upper parts.