Research engineers at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate have developed an augmented reality system for nondestructive inspections of military aircraft.
The Augmented Reality for Nondestructive Evaluation was designed to project three-dimensional hologram images onto physical aircraft parts to guide technicians through the process of using eddy current for bolt hole inspections, AFRL said Thursday.
“ARNE walks them through a series of processes by superimposing actual equipment and the interfaces that they see, in their direct field of use, so the information is right in front of them,” said Eric Lindgren, nondestructive technology lead at AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate.
A bolt hole eddy current procedure is done to detect the presence of fatigue cracks between metal aircraft layers to determine the airworthiness of the U.S. Air Force’s fleet.
ARNE has been demonstrated at a U.S. Air Force-wide NDI Working Group conference for nondestructive inspectors in Dayton, Ohio, attended by over 100 airmen and NDI inspectors from Japan, South Korea and other countries.
