US Navy’s FRCE Advancing Bots Development to Automate Digital Tasks

The U.S. Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center East, a naval aviation maintenance and repair depot under Naval Air Systems Command, has created bots to automate repetitive digital tasks at its  Comptroller Department. The automation project helps to enhance the efficiency of the facility’s delivery of parts, components and aircraft, according to NAVAIR.

The department has already saved almost seven weeks of performing data entry as a result of an earlier FRCE bot automatically extracting financial information from various records and documents, NAVAIR said.

The command added that FRCE plans two more bots with the potential of saving thousands of labor hours. One focuses on reducing the needed manpower for processing employee clocking data, while the other aims at higher efficiency in documenting fund disbursements.

Capt. James Belmont, FRCE commanding officer, said the bots are a “force multiplier” directly helping make the Navy faster and more efficient. He added that the bot project “is a great example of the creativity and innovative thinking propelling FRCE forward into the future.”

In a 2021 project, FRCE also looked into the possibility of using a robotic fiber optic inspection and cleaning system in aircraft avionics.