Inspection system for a gas turbine engine

A gas turbine engine comprising:

• a compressor section;
• a combustor in fluid communication with the compressor section;
• a turbine section in fluid communication with the combustor;
• and
• an inspection system comprising:
• a team of terrestrial drones each equipped with at least one inspection sensor;
• at least one processor configured to:
• choreograph operation of the terrestrial drones to each move along a unique inspection path and collectively traverse an area of interest in a gas turbine engine, wherein the unique inspection path is based upon a heuristic algorithm determining goal points in the unique inspection path to which the associated terrestrial drone traverses, the location of the goal points based on minimizing, between goal points, at least one of distance, time, number of turns, or surface curvature, and
• operate the inspection sensor of each of the terrestrial drones to collect inspection data along the associated drone-specific inspection path.

An inspection system for a gas turbine engine, the system comprising:

• a team of terrestrial drones each equipped with at least one inspection sensor;
• at least one processor configured to:
• choreograph operation of the terrestrial drones to each move along a unique inspection path on a surface of a component in a gas turbine engine,
• operate the inspection sensor of each of the terrestrial drones to collect inspection data along the unique inspection path, and
• based upon the collected inspection data, identify an abnormality on the surface.