Rolls-Royce is developing tiny 'cockroach' robots to crawl in and fix airplane engines

These would enter through a combustion chamber and would inspect damage and remove any debris. The second "snake" would deposit a patch repair that would sit temporarily until the engine was ready for full repair. No schedule is placed on when the crawling robots will be available, but already in development is a "remote boreblending robot" to fix damage to compressor blades in the engine that Rolls-Royce said engineers should be using within two years. These would be bolted-on to an engine by a low-skilled worker and control then handed to a skilled worker remotely based at the Rolls-Royce aircraft center in Derby, England. The unit carries out a 3D scan to remotely assess the problem, before being retooled to allow the repair to take place.