13 November 2023

Dutch Applied AI Award 2023 to KLM, Mainblades and KPN

KLM Engineering & Maintenance, Mainblades and KPN won this year's Dutch Applied AI Award. The award jury particularly praised the linking of drones, communication technology and Artificial Intelligence in this partnership.

KLM, Mainblades and KPN received the award at the annual Computable Awards from the hands of jury chairman Nanda Piersma.

For KPN, it was the fourth award that evening, making the company the big winner of the awards show. In all four cases, they did have to share the awards with other parties, as they were projects in which it acted jointly.

Rapid detection of aircraft damage

KPN received the Dutch Applied AI Award for the innovation project it undertook together with Mainblades and KLM. Aircraft inspection is important, but also time-consuming. By deploying drones, KLM can detect damage faster. Mainblades provides the software and technology for visual inspections of aircraft with automated drones. KPN provides the connectivity. "In the future, every aircraft might have its own drone," said Bas de Glopper, innovation manager at KLM Engineering & Maintenance.

KLM uses these drones, among other things, to check aircraft in a hangar for thunderstorm damage. "After a lightning strike, an aircraft always needs to be inspected," explains De Glopper. "This damage can be as big as a tennis ball or as small as a pinhead. Looking for damage with the naked eye, e.g. from an aerial platform, takes a lot of time. One inspection takes four men six to eight hours."

An aircraft on the ground does not make money. KLM is therefore constantly looking for ways to make maintenance more efficient. "Together with Mainblades, we have developed an automatic drone system that works for every aircraft type," says Mr. K. Thunderstorm inspections are the first concrete application. "The drone autonomously flies past the aircraft, takes pictures and displays them on an iPad. Then an AI system looks for possible damage. With this, we reduce the inspection time to one to two hours."

Jury praises bundling of technologies

The jury of the Dutch Applied AI Award is enthusiastic about the application. "The collaborating partners have created a working system that brings together three technologies: communication, automated data collection with drones and image recognition of, in this case, hairline cracks in aircraft walls," explains jury chair Nanda Piersma. She is the scientific director of the Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, one of the initiators of the award alongside podcast De Dataloog and Computable. "Worldwide, this has not been applied like this before. The parties have already achieved a great result by reducing the inspection time of an aircraft to two hours.

A proper example of result duplication. In addition, during the process, they thought about how to deploy AI responsibly, and what role this technology has. The deployment of AI: not because it can be done; it is really necessary."

This is the fourth time the Dutch Applied AI Award has been presented. This year in the jury:
- Nanda Piersma (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
- Jurjen Helmus (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
- Omar Niamut (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences & TNO)
- Maaike Harbers (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences)
- Jann de Waal (Top Sector Creative Industry)

This article was published on the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences website (in Dutch).
Photo credits: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

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