Analysis of an Aircraft System and Digitalisation of Maintenance Procedures in Virtual Reality

Aircraft maintenance is one of key aspects in aircraft life cycle and consists of both preventive and corrective practices to ensure aircraft’s continuing airworthiness. Every day, more than 100’000 aircrafts fly over the world and for each one of them a team of well-trained maintenance technicians is deployed to guarantee passengers safety. With the advent of Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality, the way to think about aircraft maintenance technicians training is changing. The use of these cutting-edge technologies allows to simulate training scenarios, providing fast and accessible learning-by-doing as well as cost effectiveness. The aim of this work is the development of an innovative aircraft maintenance training and/or operation support method via Pacelab WEAVR software of TXT e-Solution S.p.A. The digitalization of maintenance procedures is based on the CFM56-7 engine’s official maintenance manual and integrated with Extended Reality technologies. Maintenance manual and the system itself has been alongside analysed to find out the useful information for the project development. The commercial engine’s 3D model has been reviewed and integrated with missing components and support equipment. After the scene creation, the whole procedures have been “translated” and step-by-step digitalized. Finally, simulations have been exhaustively debugged and improved thanks to user test feedback. The thesis internship started in September 2018 with a preliminary assessment of Extended Reality technologies and familiarization with Pacelab WEAVR tool and Unity3D® environment. In the following months the core of the project activity was carried out both at TXT headquarters in Milan and its satellite office in Orbassano (TO). Work was completed at the end of February 2019. Present report describes all the activities developed, the issues encountered as well as possible future developments.