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Donecle

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Donecle
Company typeSAS
IndustryAerospace
FoundedSeptember 2015 in Labège, Haute-Garonne, France
FounderYann Bruner
Matthieu Claybrough
Josselin Bequet
Alban Deruaz-Pepin
Headquarters
Toulouse
,
France
ProductsAutonomous aircraft inspection UAVs

Donecle is a Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer which develops autonomous aircraft inspection UAVs. The company offers single UAVs and swarms of UAVs to visually inspect the exterior of airliners.

Autonomous navigation of the UAVs is based on laser positioning technology. UAVs take pictures of the aircraft with high resolution cameras. Image processing and machine learning algorithms analyse the images. The system then provides a diagnostic of the aircraft surface to a qualified inspector, who reviews the images and validates or refutes the provided analysis.

The company works with airlines such as Air France Industries-KLM and aircraft manufacturers such as Dassault Aviation and is one of the players in the field of aeronautical maintenance automation.

History

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Background

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UAVs simplify the examination of the upper parts as the vertical tail part illustrated in the photograph.[1]

Aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus, Boeing and ATR, and certification bodies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), require regular visual inspections of the entire external surface of the aircraft to assess the condition of their structures. About 80% of the required inspections are visual.[2] All aircraft are visually inspected prior to each flight, as part of scheduled maintenance operations and after unplanned events such as a lightning strike, hail storm or other possible external damage. One possible solution to improve the traceability of these operations and reduce costs is the robotization of aeronautical maintenance and its visual inspections.[3][4]

In January 2013, the French research and development project Air-Cobot began to develop a collaborative mobile robot capable of inspecting an aircraft during maintenance operations. Carried out by the Akka Technologies group, this multi-partner project involved research laboratories and companies, including Airbus.[5][6] In 2014, in partnership with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the British airline easyJet became interested in drones guided by technicians to reduce the inspection time of aircraft fuselages.[7][1]

Foundation

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Founders of Donecle, from left to right, Josselin Bequet, Matthieu Claybrough, Alban Deruaz-Pepin et Yann Bruner.[8]

After thirteen years in the design offices of the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus on the A400M and A350 aircraft with metal and composite materials,[9][10][11] Yann Bruner, an engineer at Mines ParisTech with a PhD in Mechanics and Materials, noted that maintenance inspection reports are often incomplete for various reasons such as missing photographs, missing information, or illegible handwriting. He considered the use of drones to perform the inspection automatically.[10] He contacted Matthieu Claybrough, who was involved in UAV projects at the Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace.[9] A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Claybrough has a specialization in innovation management, aeronautics and control theory.[12][13] For three years he worked on the design of automatic pilots for aircraft, including helicopters for Thales Avionics, an avionics supplier.[12]

Two other partners joined them in the project. The first was Josselin Bequet, a graduate of the École supérieure de commerce de Paris (ESCP Europe) and the City, University of London who specializes in management and finance.[14][8] The second was Alban Deruaz-Pepin, who graduated from the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) and specializes in computer science and control theory, and holds a private pilot license.[8] They founded the startup, Donecle, in September 2015 and developed an automated inspection procedure for aircraft with a swarm of UAVs.[15] In June of That same year they presented their concept at the Paris Air Show.[10][16]

Product

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Donecle's autonomous UAV inspecting an airliner.[17]

Although regulations and weather make it difficult to use UAVs in airspace near airports, Donecle developed a product that works both indoors and outdoors, using a laser positioning system for its UAVs.[9][18] During the autonomous flight, cameras mounted on the UAVs photograph the exterior surface of the aircraft. Algorithms analyse the images and provide a diagnostic report about the aircraft surface. A human operator chooses a flight plan for the required inspection and a qualified inspector then validates the reports.[9][18]

Compared to human inspections that require scaffolding, inspection of the outer surface of a typical airliner with drones takes about twenty minutes versus six to ten hours and requires one person versus ten to twenty.[1][19][20] The cost of taking an aircraft out of service can run at approximately $10,000 per hour, which makes UAV inspection cost effective.[11][20] Donecle has filed patents for this process.[15][21][22][23]

Development

[edit]
Donecle has a partnership with Air France Industries-KLM Engineering and Maintenance.[15]

Inspections use a set of mobile Internet of Things (IoT) sensors,[24] so at its inception in 2015, Donecle joined the Connected Camp, a business incubator in this field, located in the IoT Valley of Labège, a town south-east of Toulouse.[15][25] The incubator aids the search for funding and provides some common equipment such as 3D printers.[26][27] Donecle is a member of the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster, the Robotics Place cluster and the Hardware Club.[28] In October 2016, it became a member of the Starburst Accelerator, the world's largest incubator for aerospace startups.[29][14]

In 2016, the company announced a partnership with the French-Dutch aeronautical maintenance group Air France Industries-KLM Engineering and Maintenance (AFI-KLM E&M).[15][18] The UAVs were tested on their aircraft to verify the marking and detection of defects. At the end of this testing and verification phase, AFI-KLM and Donecle planned to jointly deploy the equipment at AFI-KLM E&M maintenance sites.[28]

At the end of 2016, DDrone Invest, an investment company controlled by the French company Delta Drone, invested one million euros in Donecle. With this capital injection, the company became a shareholder, alongside the founders.[15][30] At the Paris Air Show in 2017, the company announced that it was starting to sign its first contracts with air carriers and planned commercial deployment by the end of the year.[31] During the year, the startup was planning to increase its workforce and to attract international clients.[32]

In 2018, at the ADS Show, a trade show for aerospace and defense maintenance, Donecle conducted a drone inspection of a Dassault Rafale, the French multirole combat aircraft.[33][34] In the future, the company intends to offer other types of inspections, such as quality control of exterior paint and the evaluation of corrosion. Planning is also underway for applications outside aviation, such as rail transport, shipbuilding and wind farms.[11][15]

Technologies

[edit]

Autonomous navigation

[edit]
Donecle's autonomous UAV inspecting an aircraft.[17]

The Donecle UAV is a coaxial push-pull octocopter.[35] The UAVs position themselves relative to the aircraft with laser positioning technology. This allows them to operate in enclosed areas, such as hangars, without the need for geolocation with Global Positioning System (GPS).[9][18][36] Algorithms compute in real time the position of the UAV relative to the aircraft.[9][18] The sensors used for autonomous navigation also ensure safe operation, by preventing collisions with aircraft, human personnel and equipment.[37]

The navigation plans and the number of UAVs employed in each case depend on the aircraft model to be analyzed. A single UAV is enough for a small airplane while up to six UAVs can be used for an Airbus A380.[36] As the inspection missions are always the same, the routes are pre-programmed in the software installed on a tablet computer. A human operator does not need to pilot the UAVs, but only launches the mission and then the UAVs fly autonomously around the aircraft.[9][18] They normally fly at a distance of one meter from the fuselage.[9]

Visual inspection

[edit]
Image processing software control the quality of regulatory markings.[17]

The high-resolution cameras mounted on the UAVs photograph the surface of the aircraft. Image processing algorithms perform the first step of detecting any region of interest on the fuselage. A second step of classification is then carried out in order to categorize defects (lightning strike, oil leak, scratching, texture irregularity, etc.) versus normal elements of the aircraft (screws, rivets, pitot tubes, etc.). The recognition algorithm is based on machine learning from the annotated databases of previous flights.[9][18][38]

The effectiveness of deep learning algorithms depends on the representativeness and the quantity of examples in each class. Databases suffer from the fact that there is only a small number of defects compared to the huge amount of normal elements present on an aircraft. The defects are, however, the most critical objects to classify. To overcome this difficulty, Donecle has done research to extend image annotations, using classical image processing techniques and generative adversarial networks.[39] Other alternatives also considered include one-shot learning, which allows learning information about object categories from a single image, or a small number of training images.[40]

Diagnostics are provided in real time.[36] Applications include fault detection and quality control of regulatory markings. At the end of the mission, a damage report is sent to a tablet computer with each region of interest and its proposed classification. The algorithm returns a confidence rate on its diagnosis. An inspector reviews at the images and validates or refutes the diagnostics.[9][38]

Operational testing

[edit]

The company's drone were employed in operational tests by Austrian Airlines in September 2019.[41]

Awards and recognition

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Matthieu Claybrough during award ceremony of MIT Technology Review in 2016.[12]

The startup and its founders have received the following awards:

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Isabelle Bellin; Sylvain Labbé (2016). Des drones à tout faire ?: Ce qu'ils vont changer dans ma vie au quotidien (in French). Editions Quae. p. 90. ISBN 9782759225293.
  2. ^ U.F. Goranson; J.T. Rogers (1983). "Elements of Damage Tolerance Verification". Twelfth ICAF Symposium, International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue.
  3. ^ Henry Canaday (28 August 2015). "UAVs And Robotics Move Into MRO: Technological innovations are changing inspections, parts stocking and repairs". Inside MRO. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  4. ^ Graham Warwick (25 September 2015). "More Airlines Turn To UAVs For Aircraft Inspection". Inside MRO. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  5. ^ Jovancevic, Igor; Larnier, Stanislas; Orteu, Jean-José; Sentenac, Thierry (November 2015). "Automated exterior inspection of an aircraft with a pan-tilt-zoom camera mounted on a mobile robot" (pdf). Journal of Electronic Imaging. 24 (6): 061110. Bibcode:2015JEI....24f1110J. doi:10.1117/1.JEI.24.6.061110. S2CID 29167101.
  6. ^ Valéry Bonneau (2016). Éditions Alternatives (ed.). Mon collègue est un robot (in French). Gallimard. pp. 41–42. ISBN 9782072657917.
  7. ^ "Easyjet develops flying robots to inspect aircraft". BBC News Business. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  8. ^ a b c "About us". donecle.com. Donecle. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Arnaud Devillard (20 April 2016). "Des drones pour inspecter des avions". Sciences et Avenir (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  10. ^ a b c Florine Galéron (28 August 2015). "Aéronautique : la startup Donéclé invente le drone anti-foudre". La Tribune (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Johanna Decorse (18 April 2016). "Donecle inspecte en un éclair les avions impactés par la foudre". Capital (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  12. ^ a b c #Innovators35EU – Matthieu Claybrough is Revolutionizing Aircraft Inspection on YouTube uploaded by MIT Technology Review, 26 April 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2017
  13. ^ Sylvain Rolland; Gael Cérez (14 April 2016). "Matthieu Claybrough, cofondateur de Donecle, récompensé par la MIT Technology Review". La Tribune (in French). Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  14. ^ a b BFM Business, ed. (21 June 2017). "La première édition du Paris Air Lab au salon du Bourget 2017 - 21/06". bfmbusiness.bfmtv.com (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2017. {{cite web}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Marina Angel (6 December 2016). "2017, l'année de l'envol des essaims de drones du toulousain Donecle". Usine Digitale (in French). Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  16. ^ Valérie Froger (18 July 2016). "Quatre start-up françaises qui révolutionnent leur marché". L'Express (in French). Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  17. ^ a b c UAV aircraft inspections Donecle - AFI-KLM E&M on YouTube uploaded by Donecle, 13 April 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Léo Barnier (20 July 2017). "Donecle sets its drone to work for maintenance with AFI KLM E&M". Le Journal de l'Aviation. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  19. ^ Claire Raynaud (8 April 2016). "Des milliards d'économies pour les compagnies aériennes". La Dépêche du Midi (in French). Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  20. ^ a b Jean-Baptiste Heguy (8 April 2016). "Donecle : des micro-drones pour inspecter les avions de ligne touchés par la foudre". Air et Cosmos (in French). Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  21. ^ Julie Rimbert (21 December 2016). "Des drones pour inspecter les avions". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  22. ^ WO application 2016203151  Matthieu Claybrough, System and method for automatically inspecting surfaces
  23. ^ WO application 2017121936  Alban Deruaz-Pepin, Method and system for determining the position of a moving aircraft
  24. ^ Jeanne Dussueil (29 June 2016). "Donecle, à l'assaut des compagnies aériennes avec ses drones de maintenance des avions". frenchweb.fr (in French). Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  25. ^ Marina Angel (3 February 2016). "IoT Valley : Connected Camp saison 1, c'est parti avec 8 start-up". Usine Digitale (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  26. ^ Des drones pour contrôler les avions on YouTube (in French) uploaded by Toulouse Métropole, 10 October 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2017
  27. ^ Founder Feedback Stories / Donecle / Josselin Bequet on YouTube (in French) uploaded by IoT Valley, 30 March 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017
  28. ^ a b JDE Edition (24 October 2016). "Toulouse. Donecle Delta Drone investit un million d'euros dans Donecle". Le Journal des entreprises (in French). Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  29. ^ Magali Rebeaud (16 June 2017). "Donecle inspecte les avions de ligne avec ses drones". Aerobuzz (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  30. ^ AOF (11 October 2016). "Delta Drone investit un million d'euros dans Donecle". Capital (in French). Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  31. ^ Gabrielle Carpel (11 October 2016). "Les drones du Bourget". Drones Actu (in French). Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  32. ^ Midinvest, ed. (24 February 2017). "Sélection Midinvest 2017 : Donecle, le drone automatique inspecteur d'avion". midinvest.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  33. ^ (in French) @HenrydFrecinet (26 September 2018). "Présentation dynamique d'inspection de #Rafale par le drone de @Donecle sur l' @ADSShow2018 avec @AppsDrones @AiretCosmos" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  34. ^ Emmanuel Huberdeau (5 October 2018). "Des drones pour aider à la maintenance". Air et Cosmos (in French) (2611): 15.
  35. ^ Chebbi, Jawhar; Defaÿ, François; Brière, Yves; Deruaz-Pepin, Alban (2020). "Novel Model-Based Control Mixing Strategy for a Coaxial Push-Pull Multirotor". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 5 (2): 485–491. doi:10.1109/LRA.2019.2963652. S2CID 210693599.
  36. ^ a b c Olivier James (19 November 2016). "Les drones de Donecle auscultent les avions". L'Usine Nouvelle (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  37. ^ Emma Bao (4 August 2016). Entreprises Occitanie (ed.). "DRONES : Donecle opère y compris en indoor, des drones pour inspecter les impacts foudre sur un avion". entreprises-occitanie.com (in French). Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  38. ^ a b (in French) Miranda, Julien; Larnier, Stanislas; Claybrought, Matthieu (2018). "Caractérisation d'objets sur des images acquises par drone recherchant des défauts pour la maintenance aéronautique" (PDF). Actes de la conférence Reconnaissance de Formes et Intelligence Artificielle. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-23. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  39. ^ (in French) Deliencourt, Bryan; Giraud, Mathieu; Miranda, Julien; Larnier, Stanislas; Herbulot, Ariane; Devy, Michel (2019). "Génération photo-réaliste de défauts sur des images de surfaces extérieures d'avions acquises parun drone autonome". ORASIS, Journées Francophones des Jeunes Chercheurs en Vision Par Ordinateur.
  40. ^ Miranda, Julien; Veith, Jannic; Larnier, Stanislas; Herbulot, Ariane; Devy, Michel (2019). "Machine learning approaches for defect classification on aircraft fuselage images aquired [sic] by an UAV". In Cudel, Christophe; Bazeille, Stéphane; Verrier, Nicolas (eds.). Fourteenth International Conference on Quality Control by Artificial Vision. Vol. 11172. p. 10. Bibcode:2019SPIE11172E..08M. doi:10.1117/12.2520567. ISBN 9781510630536. S2CID 197660022.
  41. ^ O'Connor, Kate (10 September 2019). "Airline Testing Aircraft Inspection Drones". AVweb. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  42. ^ "Prix Jean-Louis Gerondeau / Zodiac Aerospace". polytechnique.edu (in French). Polytechnique. 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  43. ^ "Prix Galaxie 2016". club-galaxie.com (in French). Club Galaxie. 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  44. ^ Sophie Arutunian (13 October 2016). "La startup Donecle remporte le Grand Prix Galaxie 2016". La Tribune (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  45. ^ "Matthieu Claybrough". innovatorsunder35.com. Innovators Under 35. 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  46. ^ Guillaume Bregeras (14 April 2016). "Les dix pionniers français à suivre selon le MIT". Les Échos (in French).
  47. ^ "Lauréats Prix Jeune Ingénieur Créateur 2016". norbert-segard.org (in French). Fondation Norbert Ségard. 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  48. ^ "Prix la Tribune Jeune Entrepreneur 2016 : découvrez les lauréats". bpifrance.fr (in French). Bpifrance. 5 April 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  49. ^ "PLTJE 2016 : des entrepreneurs ambitieux pour représenter Toulouse et sa région". La Tribune (in French). 11 November 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  50. ^ "2ème édition start me up by CA31 sur orbite !" (PDF). ca-toulouse31.fr (in French). Crédit agricole. 3 June 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  51. ^ "Donecle récompensée par le Crédit Agricole Toulouse 31". La Dépêche du Midi (in French). 24 October 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  52. ^ "Les cinq lauréats des trophées Aeromart Toulouse 2016". madeeli.fr (in French). 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  53. ^ "Donecle reçoit le trophée de l'innovation Toulouse". toulouse7.com (in French). December 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  54. ^ "Lauréats du concours national de robotique extérieure 2017". concours-robotique.fr (in French). Concours national de robotique extérieure. 2017. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  55. ^ Maxime Birken (13 March 2017). "La startup toulousaine Donéclé lauréate du 2e concours national de robotique". La Tribune (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  56. ^ "Prix de l'Entrepreneur de l'Année : les lauréats pour la région Grand Sud". L'Express (in French). 4 October 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  57. ^ "Sébastien Matty reçoit le "Prix de l'Entrepreneur de l'Année 2017"". La Dépêche (in French). 26 September 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  58. ^ "Bilan de Midinnov et des trophées du 37e concours Les Inn'Ovations..." La Tribune (in French). 5 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  59. ^ Martin Venzal (1 February 2018). "MidInnov et Inn'Ovations : comment l'innovation reste un moteur de l'économie régionale". ToulEco (in French). Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  60. ^ Warwick, Graham; Anselmo, Joe (10 January 2020). "Aviation Week's 2020 Laureate Winners". aviationweek.com. Aviation Week Network. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
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