Aero-engine Fan Blade Detection Based on Mobile Manipulator Visual System

Fast and effective in-situ engine blade inspection and maintenance are vital to maintaining the safety and dependability of the aero engine. Our team provided a method employing a mobile manipulator as a workhorse to position a blade climbing robot on the fan blade for inspection. This paper proposed a SLAM navigation method and a depth information-based visual detection technique for fan blades to solve positioning issues for blade climbing robot with a mobile manipulator. An experimental platform is described, which is established to explore the feasibility of the proposed blade-detecting method.