CSIRO project could see sensors built into Boeing twinjet to monitor fatigue and cracking
Boeing is funding a project designed to lead to the development of a self-monitoring aerospace vehicle skin that could be used on the company's 7E7 programme.
The research contract is with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and is one of many being undertaken by the CSIRO's Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Centre, which was formally launched last week.
The Boeing work is part of a CSIRO "smart spaces" project, which includes activity with NASA's Langley Research Center on creating an intelligent spacecraft tile that is capable of self-organising and responding to damage and failure.
Applications on space vehicles are some way off, concedes research manager Tony Farmer, although the organisation has developed prototype hardware with 800 sensors that are "intelligent agents" and capable of talking to each other.
CSIRO's work differs from others in the field in that it has approached the technology in a distributed intelligence fashion whereby the sensors can make decisions alone, without sending data back to a central location. The technology can be applied to any major infrastructure, says Farmer, pointing to buildings and road networks as examples.
The project with Boeing could see the sensors built into the 7E7, he says. Having the sensors embedded in aircraft materials is the ultimate goal, but initially they could be installed on the aircraft fuselage to monitor fatigue cracking and damage, for example, says Farmer.
The research body hopes to have more talks with the US manufacturer early next year to ramp up the programme, he adds.
EMMA KELLY / PERTH
Source: Flight International
