The Air Force and aviation industry at large are facing an almost crippling problem with severe staffing shortages for aircraft maintainers. In the wheel and tire shop alone, it takes a four-man crew to lift and service a single F-35 tire. The frequency of tire changes needed for aircraft readiness coupled with the amount of manpower needed to maintain the tires causes substantial costs to the Air Force and safety risks for the maintainers. The 56thEquipment Maintenance Squadron (EMS) needs innovative solutions for servicing and repairing aircraft wheels to keep up with demand and maintain an operational fleet. RoboTire has the solution. The RoboTire Robotic F-35 warehouse-mounted tire changing station will provide an automated solution capable of rapidly servicing and changing worn F-35 tires in the 56 EMS tire and wheel shop. The autonomous robotic solution will provide a fast, accurate, repeatable and extremely safe method for removing worn F-35 tires from their rims, reinstalling fresh tires and inspecting the assembly before moving them to the ready for inspection section of the warehouse. This capability will free up maintainers for other tasks by automating tire swaps and inspection in the warehouse with minimal exposure to safety risks, thereby increasing the Air Force's operational Mobility (readiness/preparedness), Survivability (safety/protection), and Lethality (deployment/recoverability), while significantly reducing cycle-time and increasing repeatable, reliable maintenance. RoboTirewill work with the 56th EMS, utilizing the SBIR Phase I to execute a 3-month feasibility study then transition to a Phase II to begin prototyping the solution.
