The AVATAR IoT sensing skin provides a lightweight, energy-efficient, modular technology offering a flexible multi-sensing solution for health monitoring and predictive maintenance. Current industrial data acquisition systems are bulky, costly, and lack integration for multiple sensors like PZT, strain gauges, thermal sensors, and accelerometers. AVATAR bridges this gap with its novel flexible sensor system and tailored data acquisition solution, compatible with advanced cloud-based platforms like AWS for secure transmission, processing, and storage. Compliance with European data strategies positions AVATAR for industrialization as a potential new product.
Building on these advances, AVATAR's Digital Twin (DT) platform pushes predictive maintenance and structural health monitoring for air vehicles, providing key scientific and industrial contributions:
Flexible and Configurable Solution: Adaptable to different airframe structures, AVATAR supports varied sensor configurations for composite and metallic materials (demonstrated on SportStar RTC, Cobra VUT-100, and ASTERO UAV), enhancing versatility across general aviation and Urban Air Mobility (UAM).
Continuous Data-Driven Monitoring & Dynamic RUL: Transitioning from static, predefined design load spectra to continuous in-flight monitoring, AVATAR reconstructs real mission-specific load histories and updates Remaining Useful Life (RUL) dynamically. Combining high-fidelity physical simulations with explainable machine learning (XAI) delivers accurate, transparent structural health evaluations, significantly boosting flight safety, extending aircraft service life, and reducing operational downtime.
These contributions were fully validated through AVATAR's building block approach, progressing from laboratory and wind tunnel coupon tests to integrated flight campaigns across diverse manned and unmanned platform configurations.
