Automated Multi-Camera Inspection System for Aircraft

Abstract In this paper, we present the development of an automated visual inspection system designed to detect defects on the upper surface of an aircraft airframe. Specifically, the system employs a multi-camera PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) set-up to capture and process images from designated regions. Custom developed software manages path planning and camera localization, while a hybrid-AI framework is integrated to identify various defect types, including missing and damaged components. The demonstration highlights the system’s detection capabilities and prototype functionalities using a large aircraft model, supported by a user interface to monitor progress and visualize results. To help validate this work, performance evaluations were conducted using selected multimodal and object detection models.