The sea is a hostile environment. Even in the gentlest parts of the ocean, saltwater starts to corrode whatever it comes into contact with. To keep a ship of Theseus from becoming a ship of Sisyphus, the Navy is turning to drones to aid with inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To demonstrate the usefulness of a drone for shipshape inspections, the Office of Naval Research turned to the USS Midway, the venerable aircraft carrier turned floating museum. Parked on a pier in San Diego, the Midway has a particular advantage for testing maintenance tools: it\u2019s the right size and scale of the task, without any compromising information on board. That is especially important when the drone used is a commercial off-the-shelf model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTopside Drone\u201d is the development of a senor that detects corrosion and anomalies, outfitted to a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) UAV,\u201d read an announcement<\/a> about the project from ONR. \u201cThe technology will inspect and detect material defects, corrosion, warping and other conditions plaguing naval vessels. The drone flies around the area of inspection and takes photographs and measurements for evaluation to determine if corrosion exists\u2014and the severity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The eight-rotor drone, featuring two sets of four-rotors on rails angled in a slight V-shape, appears to be an Intel-made Falcon 8 multicopter system<\/a>. (As of press time, ONR had not yet responded to a request for clarification about which drone model was used).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commercial-off-the-shelf technology is in a particularly unusual place for the Pentagon, with low cost and ease of use pulling acquisition toward<\/a> off-the-shelf models. At the same time, cybersecurity concerns are leading Congress to legislate against the purchase<\/a> of certain models based on country of origin without a waiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the museum-ship acting as a test bed, ONR\u2019s drone was able to use both LiDAR and an electro-optical\/infrared camera to scan the ship. The LiDAR created a digital model of the Midway, and the camera images were placed in context on that model. Then, the pictures are \u201calgorithmically inspected for corrosion using computer vision,\u201d highlighting where corrosion is and what specifically needs maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ship inspection by robot slots squarely into the \u201cdull\u201d part of the drone industry\u2019s \u201cdull, dirty, and dangerous\u201d tag line. If the Navy finds the technique useful in serving vessels, and finds drones at a viable price point that meet security needs, swooping decks with robots could become as essential a part of sailor routine and swabbing decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch a video about Topside Drone below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n