An RFID Based Automated Aircraft Maintenance Inspection Management System using IoT

This paper proposes a framework and implements a prototype for automation in the field of maintenance documentation using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which allows for the integration of IoT (Internet of Things) into aircraft maintenance. Aircraft maintenance is a strict-routine, work-intensive process that is extremely sensitive to fatal errors, thus demanding high levels of precision and consistency in maintenance. Due to the workload on maintenance organizations, capacity shortages, and inefficiency in maintenance management, aircraft remain grounded, causing a loss of revenue and increasing the cost of maintenance. ESP32 micro-controller and MFRC522 RFID Module are used to implement the proposed system with Firebase and React for the network and application layer of the IoT architecture. The system is designed to update virtual work schedules in real-time, with unique identifiers for both the component or sub-system and the technician with data validation to reduce human error further, which can further be integrated with predictive maintenance to produce a holistic maintenance system. Finally, the effectiveness of the system is shown via a study conducted to compare the traditional and RFID systems. The RFID system took 88.9% less time for signing off compared to the traditional paper-based process.