An aero-engine inspection continuum robot with tactile sensor based on EIT for exploration and navigation in unknown environment

An aero-engine inspection robot (AEIR) is introduced in this paper with the capability of tactile exploration and navigation inside an unknown engine environment, which is aimed at damage detection for engine blades. In order to obtain the position and pose information of the blades inside the engine, a novel tactile sensor based on electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is developed, which could provide location and direction information when contacts with an unknown object. In addition, in order to navigate the continuum robot, a control method is used to control the continuum robot. A prototype of the proposed robot is fabricated and tested with an aero-engine testing platform. The validities of the proposed tactile sensor and the AEIR for engine internal blade detection are verified.