ILS inspection by drone

Abstract

This paper describes the design, process, and preliminary results, of using a drone for ILS calibrations. The project was carried out at HEMAV, headquartered at the UPC in Castelldefels, and focused mainly on the aircraft and payload, as well as market and legal studies. Air Transportation is the second largest market in the world, surpassed only by Gas and Oil markets. The market cap in 2014 was 142.5 B€. Since there is so much revenue passing through the Air Transport market, it opens new job possibilities for systems that do things more efficiently than traditional methods. The goal was to design a drone capable of replacing traditional aircraft for ILS inspections. The first step was to conduct a research study on the market, state of the art technologies, and legal barriers that might impact the project. Next, ILS flight procedures and current methods used were researched. Once completed, the design process began, in which the payload and platform were identified. The frame, motors, flight controller, and telemetry were compared and selected. After which the final design for the first prototype was created. Finally, the test flight results were analysed, showing early stages of the GPS validation process. Discussing a problem and possible solution to the signal discontinuity. Future work includes expanding the system to different NAVAID systems, such as VOR, ALS, or GBAS. Preliminary work has also been done to construct a neural network, in python, that learn to create inspection reports by analysing real signal datasets and calibration reports.