Vision-guided robotic system for aero-engine inspection and dynamic balancing

The fourth industrial revolution witnessed significant advancements in automating numerous aircraft inspection tasks. Still, certain critical procedures continue to rely on manual execution, including the aero-engine blade weighing process. This task is of paramount importance for blade mass inspection and engine dynamic balancing. Yet, automation of aero-engine blade weighing remains a challenge due to the intricate geometry of engine blades, and the stringent requirements on precision. To address this gap, this paper introduces, for the first time, a vision-guided robotic system for autonomous aero-engine blade weighing. The proposed system presents a novel end-effector design incorporating a high-precision load cell for accurate and rapid weighing coupled with an imaging sensor for autonomous robotic perception capabilities. The system is tested in industrial settings, and the results show a high weighing precision and accuracy of 0.0404 g and of 0.0252 g, respectively. Our system offers the advantage of seamless integration into existing industrial setups without the need for facility reconfiguration.