David Papp Blog

Spider robots find and repair holes in airship

The Skunk Works division of Lockheed Martin created a self-propelled spider robot that moves over an airship to scan for holes and repair them. It has an inside part and outside part that are held together by magnets. When it finds a hole using light sensors and repairs it, it takes before and after photos so they can be manually verified by an operator. Many spider robots can operate simultaneously which reduces the time considerably.

Imagine applying similar technology to other aircraft, vehicles, vessels, or even pipelines. We could avoid very unfortunate leaks having serious environmental impact and safety concerns.