Automated optical inspection of FAST’s reflector surface using drones and computer vision

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), also known as the China Sky Eye, is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. Its reflector is a partial sphere of radius R=300 m. The planar partial spherical cap of the reflector has a diameter of 519.6 m, 1.7 times larger than that of the previously largest radio telescope.