Lockheed Martin’s hybrid airships are the size of a football field, making it a challenge to inspect their surfaces for tiny pinholes. That’s why the aerospace company’s Skunk Works division developed a robot called Self-Propelled Instrument for Damage Evaluation and Repair, or SPIDER for short, to crawl on the vehicles’ surfaces to conduct autonomous inspections.
SPIDER is composed of two magnetic parts that snap together. Image source: Lockheed Martin.
According to Skunk Works, old methods to repair blimps are time-consuming. One has to deflate the blimp, which can take hours, and walk around with a bright, handheld light, carefully looking for rips and tears.
By contrast, SPIDER is composed of two magnetic parts that snap together: one goes outside of the blimp’s envelope (or its surface, which is made of balloon fabric) and the other goes inside. The outer part shines light on the fabric while the inner half detects the pinholes using its light sensors. It can then move its patching mechanism over any damage, repair it, and then snap before and after pictures of the fix, allowing it to later be inspected by human eyes.
Competition has been heating up to make more fuel-efficient blimps. Both Lockheed Martin and the British-owned Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) have been developing their own models with the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, leading to cheaper oil prices. Of course, companies still needed to move their equipment to remote locations, and with the new blimps expected to cost about $40 million each, SPIDER could make those purchases less of a risk.
Lockheed Martin landed its first hybrid airship contract — a $480 million deal — back in March. Without SPIDER, it would have taken days to inspect each of the company’s 12 blimps. Although it’s doubtful that the tiny bot will make blimps more common, it could certainly help to speed up the manufacturing process.
For more information on SPIDER, tune in to the video below.
Source: Lockheed Martin
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