ST Engineering receives first authorization from CAAS to perform aircraft inspection using drones

ST Engineering will be using its in-house developed drone solution, DroScan to carry out General Visual Inspection (GVI) during aircraft maintenance at its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Singapore after its aerospace sector received authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). This is the first-ever authorization granted by CAAS for the use of unmanned aerial systems to perform GVI on Singapore-registered aircraft.  With this authorization, ST Engineering can apply its DroScan solution on approved aircraft models such as the Airbus A320 family. 

An end-to-end aircraft external general inspection solution, DroScan leverages automation and smart analytics capabilities to bring about higher efficiency and greater workplace safety during aircraft maintenance work. The Group had over the past one year demonstrated the solution’s capabilities and benefits through a number of successful trials with participating airline customers including Air New Zealand. By using drones to physically carry out visual inspections, DroScan eliminates the need to set up bulky ground equipment such as boom-lifts and work stands for inspectors to climb up and down during manual inspections. Inspectors can instead conduct indirect GVI using live video feed and post-flight images captured by the drones. Captured images can be fed through algorithms that detect and classify defects to assist the inspectors in the review process.

In addition to smart analytics capability, DroScan is incorporated with safety features that could allow for future operations within Singapore’s civil aerodromes. These features include a precise localization system to navigate in GPS-denied environment, power tethered system for extended flight duration and controlled safety template, multiple sensors for obstacles detection and Geo-fencing to prevent the drone from straying out of flight template.