Aerobotix, a Huntsville-based robotics integrator, will demonstrate its latest robot at the WESTEC/AeroDef Manufacturing Conference in California Nov. 7-9.
The self-navigating Adaptive Radome Diagnostic System (ARDS) was created specifically for the aerospace and defense industries. It was built in a partnership with Compass Technology Group for the U.S. Air Force.
“Mobile robots are widely used in general manufacturing and warehousing but still new to the aerospace and defense industries,” said Josh Tuttle, Aerobotix business development manager. “They support the ‘factory of the future’ concept and offer significant benefits in labor and cost savings, output quality and worker safety.”
The ARDS was developed under the Air Force’s Small Business Innovation Research program and uses microwave signals to non-destructively evaluate aircraft radomes and identify defects such as delamination or water ingress. It won the top Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award at the 2021 Defense Manufacturing Conference.
“The new mobile robot we are demonstrating at WESTEC/AeroDef isn’t self-navigating like the ARDS but could be reconfigured to become self-navigating if the customer has that need,” Tuttle said. “A key strength of mobile robots is that they’re highly configurable and can be rapidly repurposed to serve multiple objectives in multiple locations.”
Aerobotix has more than 130 robotic systems installed in the U.S. and abroad.
