Techno-Economic analysis for Smart Hangar inspection operations through Sensing and Localisation at scale

Abstract: The accuracy, resilience, and affordability of localisation are fundamental to autonomous robotic inspection within aircraft maintenance and overhaul (MRO) hangars. Hangars typically feature tall ceilings and are often made of materials such as metal. Due to its nature, it is considered a GPS-denied environment, with extensive multipath effects and stringent operational constraints that collectively create a uniquely challenging environment. This persistent gap highlights the need for domain-specific comparative studies, including rigorous cost, accuracy, and integration assessments, to inform a reliable and scalable deployment of a localisation system in the Smart Hangar. This paper presents the first techno-economic roadmap that benchmarks motion capture (MoCap), ultra-wideband (UWB), and a ceiling-mounted camera network across three operational scenarios: robot localisation, asset tracking, and surface defect detection within a 40x50 m hangar bay. A dual-layer optimisation for camera selection and positioning framework is introduced, which couples market-based camera-lens selection with an optimisation solver, producing camera layouts that minimise hardware while meeting accuracy targets. The roadmap equips MRO planners with an actionable method to balance accuracy, coverage, and budget, demonstrating that an optimised vision architecture has the potential to unlock robust and cost-effective sensing for next-generation Smart Hangars.