BAE Systems develops ‘smart skin’ for aircraft
Engineers at BAE Systems’ Advanced Technology Centre (Chelmsford, Essex) are investigating the use of tens of thousands of sensors that when applied to an aircraft will enable it to sense wind speed, temperature, physical strain and movement, far more accurately than current sensor technology allows.
The "smart skin" concept will enable aircraft to monitor structural and functional integrity on a continuous basis, reporting back on potential problems before they become significant. This would reduce the need for checks by ground crews and would allow parts to be replaced in a timely manner.
BAE Systems is looking to use MEMS sensors to measure air flow, temperature, strain, acceleration and rotation, many of the same properties measured in a mobile phone. When coupled with a power source and wireless communications the "skin" would be able to send messages to the flight deck much as human skin sends signals to the brain.
BAE Systems said it is exploring the possibility of retrofitting such sensor swarm networks to existing aircraft and even spraying them on the air plane surfaces like paint.
“Observing how a simple sensor can be used to stop a domestic appliance overheating, got me thinking about how this could be applied to my work and how we could replace bulky, expensive sensors with cheap, miniature, multi-functional ones," said Lydia Hyde, senior research scientist at BAE Systems in a statement on BAE Systems’ website.
"This in turn led to the idea that aircraft, or indeed cars and ships, could be covered by thousands of these motes creating a ‘smart skin’ that can sense the world around them and monitor their condition by detecting stress, heat or damage. The idea is to make platforms ‘feel’ using a skin of sensors in the same way humans or animals do."
Hyde said that BAE Systems has been working on the idea for five years. "A smart skin that is a paint, effectively tiny computers we can spray on. That is probably a longer-term goal, maybe 15 to 20 years or so."
The idea of "smart-skin" has been discussed in the context of sensor motes for a many years, since the formation in 1997 of the "Smart Dust" project by Professor Kris Pister at the University of California Berkeley. Professor Pister formed Dust Networks Inc. in July 2002. Dust was acquired by Linear Technology Corp. in December 2011.
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