A Challenging Application in Swarm Robotics: The Autonomous Inspection of Complex Engineered Structures

Abstract

Swarm robotics is a relatively new paradigm for the coordination of multiple robots solely based on local interactions using simple individual robotic nodes. Originally inspired by the intriguing capabilities of natural swarms such as termites, wasps, and ants which are capable of complex tasks such as nest building, brood sorting, or routing for optimal foraging, swarm robotics has the potential to become a full-fledged engineering discipline. Research in swarm robotics is still in its infancy, however, and the main question of how to design an individual robot for achieving a desired behavior on the swarm level is still unsolved to a large extent. This, together with the engineering challenges associated with building robust autonomous miniature robots, has so far prevented swarm robotics from finding concrete commercial applications. Turbine Inspection A potential application is the inspection of complex engineered structure such as turbines from the inside [1] (Figure 1 and 2). Turbines are the critical element in power plants and jets, where they face extreme wear and tear. Downtime however leads to considerable cost and safety problems. In order to ensure economical and safe operation, turbines need to be inspected visually using borescopes at regular intervals – a process that might be handled automatically in the future, for instance by embedding self-actuated sensors that perform inspection when the turbine is idle.