Hand-Mounted Inspection System for Turbine Engine Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current inspection systems are inadequate for effectively inspecting and measuring in difficult-to-access environments, such as gas turbine engines, as they lack the necessary versatility and precision for complex tasks.
Innovation Solution
A hand-mounted inspection system equipped with an imaging unit and a measuring unit, featuring various sensors and tools that can be mounted on a user's hand, allowing for precise measurements and imaging from multiple angles, and potentially extending to encapsulating coverings and fluid dispensing units for enhanced functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a hand-mounted inspection system with multiple sensors and imaging units is implemented, then measurement precision and inspection capability are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hand-mounted inspection system integrates multiple sensor types (temperature, force, acceleration, radiation, magnetic field, electric field, eddy current, sound wave, and separation sensors) along with imaging units into a single multi-functional device. This allows one system to perform diverse inspection tasks including thermal imaging, structural analysis, radiation detection, and dimensional measurement, thereby improving measurement precision across multiple parameters while consolidating what would otherwise require multiple separate devices
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines imaging units and various measuring units into an integrated hand-mounted system that can be worn on the user's hand. By merging these components into a unified wearable platform, the system achieves comprehensive inspection capabilities (improving measurement precision) while maintaining a manageable form factor that leverages human dexterity for operation in difficult-to-access environments
2Adaptability or versatility
If the inspection system is designed to access difficult-to-reach areas, then adaptability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The hand-mounted inspection system leverages the user's own hand as the mounting platform, allowing the system to naturally adapt to various inspection locations. The human hand's inherent dexterity and ability to reach difficult areas provides the adaptability needed, while the user maintains direct control and intuitive operation of the integrated sensors and imaging units, eliminating the need for complex remote manipulation mechanisms
Data Source
AI summary
A hand-mounted inspection system, configured to be mounted on a user's hand, comprising: an imaging unit, configured to provide images from at least one point of view located on the user's hand; and a measuring unit, configured to provide data relating to a physical property measured at a measurement location on the user's hand. The measuring unit includes a sensor configured to provide a measurement between two measurement locations, each of the two measurement locations being located on a digit of the user's hand, a tip of a digit of the user's hand, on the phalanges of a digit of a user's hand, on the palm of the user's hand or on the back of the user's hand.