Ground-Based Inspection Arm for Stable Aircraft Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional visual-inspection systems for large structures like aircraft face challenges in capturing steady and precisely located photos and videos due to vibrations in drones and adverse weather conditions, leading to less than ideal images and potential damage risks.
Innovation Solution
A ground-based visual-inspection system comprising a mobile base, an actuatable arm, and a camera with a control system that determines and embeds location, orientation, and distance information using laser rangefinders, allowing precise positioning and image metadata embedding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If drones are used to inspect aircraft, then hard-to-reach areas can be accessed, but vibrations and weather conditions cause unstable images and potential damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a ground-based mobile inspection system with an extendable arm as an intermediary between the inspector and the aircraft. The arm can be extended to reach hard-to-access areas while remaining grounded, thus providing stable image capture without the vibrations and weather susceptibility of drones.
2Measurement precision
If drones are flown closer to aircraft for better images, then image quality improves, but risk of impacting the aircraft increases
Solution Approach 1:
The extendable arm serves as a safe intermediary that can position the inspection device close to the aircraft for high-quality imaging while maintaining physical separation and control, eliminating the risk of drone impact.
3Reliability
If ground-based systems are used for inspection, then stability and safety improve, but access to elevated or remote areas becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The inspection system incorporates an extendable arm with adjustable length and positioning capabilities, allowing the grounded system to dynamically reach elevated and remote areas of the aircraft while maintaining the stability benefits of ground-based operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the capture of high-resolution, steady images with embedded location and orientation information, reducing vibration issues and damage risks while providing accurate metadata for evaluation.
Implementation Method 1
The alignment system is configured to determine a distance of the camera relative to the structure based on data of the plurality of laser rangefinders
Data Source
AI summary
A ground-based visual-inspection system includes a ground-based visual-inspection apparatus and a control system. The ground-based visual-inspection apparatus includes a mobile base, an actuatable arm coupled to the mobile base, and an effector coupled to the actuatable arm. The actuatable arm is locatable in a three dimensional space. The end effector includes a camera configured to capture images of a structure, such as an aircraft. The control system is configured to determine location information of the camera relative to a reference location and associate the location information with the images.