Paint stripping is a normal part of the maintenance process for aircraft. Aside from making older aircraft look brand new, removing the paint allows technicians to inspect for damage to the fuselage. In the past, large teams of skilled technicians were employed to do this job which drove the price of maintaining each aircraft skyward.
In an effort to reduce costs, the National Defense Center for Energy and Environment has sponsored a two year collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and Concurrent Technologies. The goal of the project is to create “six autonomous mobile robots, each with a laser coating remover, and deploy them to work in teams to remove paint and other coatings from aircraft at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah.”
Aside from their ability to work autonomously around the clock, one of the other major benefits of using the ARLCRS is that it will reduce the environmental impact usually associated with stripping paint from aircraft. According to Jim Arthur a principle engineer with Concurrent, "Automated laser decoating is expected to significantly reduce labor, waste volume, environmental risk, and overall cost."
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Images Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon & Concurrent Technologies