{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T05:49:03Z","timestamp":1784180943902,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,17]],"date-time":"2019-04-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1555459200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In large civil aircraft manufacturing, a time-consuming post-production process is the non-destructive inspection of wing panels. This work aims to address this challenge and improve the defects\u2019 detection by performing automated aerial inspection using a small off-the-shelf multirotor. The UAV is equipped with a wide field-of-view camera and an ultraviolet torch for implementing non-invasive imaging inspection. In particular, the UAV is programmed to perform the complete mission and stream video, in real-time, to the ground control station where the defects\u2019 detection algorithm is executed. The proposed platform was mathematically modelled in MATLAB\/SIMULINK in order to assess the behaviour of the system using a path following method during the aircraft wing inspection. In addition, two defect detection algorithms were implemented and tested on a dataset containing images obtained during inspection at Airbus facilities. The results show that for the current dataset the proposed methods can identify all the images containing defects.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s19081824","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,17]],"date-time":"2019-04-17T07:58:09Z","timestamp":1555487889000},"page":"1824","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Inspection of Aircraft Wing Panels Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Vasileios","family":"Tzitzilonis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Konstantinos","family":"Malandrakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6269-5280","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luca","family":"Zanotti Fragonara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Structures, Assembly and Intelligent Automation, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jose Angel","family":"Gonzalez Domingo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Structures, Assembly and Intelligent Automation, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicolas P.","family":"Avdelidis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3966-7633","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonios","family":"Tsourdos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kevin","family":"Forster","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Airbus UK, Broughton CH4 0DR, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2018). 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