Industrial Minimally Invasive Surgery:Continuum Robotics Technologies and Applications for In-Situ Aero-Engine Inspection and Repair

Addressing the practical requirements of in-situ aero-engine inspection and maintenance,we provide a comprehensive review of the research status,key bottlenecks,and innovative developments of continuum robots for in-situ maintenance and propose the vision of minimally invasive aero-engine maintenance with continuum robots as an enabling technology.First,the research progress and limitations in three core aspects—joint configuration design,kinematic and mechanical modeling,and force-position coupled control—are systematically analyzed,and corresponding directions for future development and preliminary advances are discussed.Second,the proposed vision of minimally invasive aero-engine maintenance is elaborated,in which high-performance flexible continuum robots are developed to perform “minimally invasive surgery” on aero-engines without disassembling the engine casing,thereby addressing critical challenges in intelligent inspection and maintenance.Subsequently,three representative in-situ maintenance scenarios for aero-engines are presented.Three prototype continuum robotic systems have been developed,and laboratory-scale and full-engine validation experiments have been conducted for tasks including blade array inspection,in-situ blade grinding,and combustor inspection.Finally,the fundamental scientific challenges that must be addressed within the field of continuum robotics to realize this vision are discussed.With continued breakthroughs in key technologies,this vision is expected to become a major driver for transforming aero-engine maintenance paradigms and to be extended to in-situ inspection and maintenance of other high-end equipment,enabling “diagnosis” and “minimally invasive intervention” for advanced engineering systems.