page_title: Air-Cobot
section_title: Communications
hierarchical_section_title: Air-Cobot / Communications
caption_attribution_description: English: Air-Cobot, the collaborative mobile robot able to inspect aircraft during maintenance operations. In the picture, the robotic platform is evolving under an Airbus A320 in the hangar of Air France Industries, Toulouse, France.
context_page_description: Air-Cobot is a French research and development project of a wheeled collaborative mobile robot able to inspect aircraft during maintenance operations. This multi-partner project involves research laboratories and industry. Research around this prototype was developed in three domains: autonomous navigation, human-robot collaboration and nondestructive testing.
  Air-Cobot is presented as the first wheeled robot able to perform visual inspections of aircraft. Inspection robots using other types of sensors have been considered before, such as the European project Robair. Since the launch of the project, other solutions based on image processing began to be developed, such as EasyJet with a drone, the swarm of drones from Toulouse company Donecle and the Aircam project of the aerospace manufacturer Airbus.
  Since the beginning of the project in 2013, the Air-Cobot robot is dedicated to inspect the lower parts of an aircraft. In the continuation of the project, there is the prospect of coupling with a drone to inspect an aircraft's upper parts. In October 2016, Airbus Group launched its research project on the hangar of the future in Singapore.
context_section_description: On 23 October 2014, a patent was filed by Airbus. From 2014 to 2016, the robot had presentations in five exhibitions including Paris Air Show 2015, and Singapore Airshow 2016. The research developed in the project was presented in eigthteen conferences. Twenty-one scientific articles were published seventeen conference proceedings and four journal articles. Part of publications is centered on navigation and/or inspection by Air-Cobot while the rest focuses on specific numerical methods or hardware solutions related to the issues of the project. During the international conference Machine Control and Guidance (MCG) of 2016, the prize for the best final application is awarded to the authors of the publication Human-robot collaboration to perform aircraft inspection in working environment.
  In 17 April 2015, Airbus Group distributed a project presentation video, made by the communication agency Clipatize, on its YouTube channel. In 25 September 2015, Toulouse métropole broadcasts a promotional video on its YouTube channel. Toulouse metropolis is presented as an attractive ecosystem, able to build the future and highlights its visibility internationally. The Air-Cobot demonstrator was chosen to illustrate the robotics research of this metropolis. Located at Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes during development, researchers or engineers working on the project regularly present a demonstration to visitors (external researchers, industrial partners, or students); it was also demonstrated to the general public during the 2015 Feast of Science. Airbus Group, in 17 February 2016, broadcast a YouTube video presentation of its vision of the hangar of the future in which it plans to use Air-Cobot.
caption: Air-Cobot under the belly of an Airbus A320 in a hangar.[A 4]
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