This research is relevant to any airline that wants to innovate its maintenance scheduling process bymaking use of data-driven techniques. Shifting towards a data-driven organization holds the potential benefits of increased scheduling efficiency and profits, while decreasing the time required to schedule maintenance on a daily basis. Optimizing the airline maintenance process will lead to lower aircraft downtime and less wasted life of aircraft components. This will result in a higher passenger satisfactory, a more sustainable way of operation and a higher profit for the airline. All of these aspects stress the importance of optimizing the airline maintenance scheduling process, both from a economic and societal point of view.

In an effort to reduce the time, costs, and health hazards involved with the inspection of aircraft fuel tanks, Lockheed Martin has commissioned the design of an autonomous inspection drone for fuel tanks to DSE Group 05 at the Aerospace Engineering faculty, Delft University of Technology. This report entails the conceptual design process of the autonomous robotic tank inspection system - or ARTIS - that has been designed in this endeavor.