Articulated Turbine Maintenance Tool With IMU Position Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for maintaining gas turbine engines with borescope ports are expensive, cumbersome, and insufficiently accurate in tracking all degrees of freedom of movement, leading to inefficiencies in inspection and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method utilizing a tool with articulated portions and inertial measurement units (IMUs) to provide positional proprioception information, enabling precise navigation and stability control within the engine, allowing for accurate inspection and maintenance activities through sensor fusion and IMU feedback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional maintenance tools are used in gas turbine engines, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the measurement precision and tracking accuracy of tool position is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance tool is divided into multiple segments including a shaft, articulation section, and end effector portion, each equipped with independent inertial measurement units. This segmentation allows each component to be tracked separately, improving overall measurement precision while keeping individual segments manageable in complexity
Solution Approach 2:
Traditional mechanical positioning and tracking systems are replaced with inertial measurement units (IMUs) that use accelerometers and gyroscopes to track tool position and orientation. This substitution dramatically improves measurement precision without requiring complex mechanical tracking infrastructure
2Adaptability or versatility
If articulated tool with multiple degrees of freedom is used, then the adaptability to navigate confined spaces is improved, but the device complexity and difficulty of control increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tool incorporates an articulation section with at least two degrees of freedom that allows dynamic adjustment of the end effector's position and orientation. The articulation section can bend or rotate to navigate around obstacles and access confined spaces within the gas turbine engine, providing adaptability without requiring a completely reconfigurable structure
Solution Approach 2:
Inertial measurement units provide real-time feedback on the position and orientation of each tool segment. This feedback is processed by a control system that automatically adjusts the articulation section to maintain proper tool positioning, reducing the complexity of manual control while improving adaptability to confined spaces
3Measurement precision
If multiple inertial measurement units are added to track all degrees of freedom, then the measurement precision is improved, but the device complexity and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each inertial measurement unit is designed to measure all three rotational degrees of freedom (roll, pitch, yaw) simultaneously using a combination of accelerometers and gyroscopes. This multi-functional approach improves tracking accuracy without requiring separate sensors for each degree of freedom, reducing overall device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple inertial measurement units are merged into a coordinated network where each unit tracks its local segment and the control system integrates this data to determine the complete tool position and orientation. This combining approach provides comprehensive tracking accuracy while avoiding the complexity of a single oversized sensor system
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 high-precision inspection and maintenance within gas turbine engines, ensuring stable tool positioning and effective execution of tasks such as surface preparation, material application, and repair, even in tightly confined spaces.
Implementation Method 1
a first inertial measurement unit (IMU) affixed with respect to the first portion and a second IMU affixed with respect to the second portion
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for maintaining a gas turbine engine having at least one port comprises a tool having an end effector to effect maintaining the gas turbine engine, the tool being configured to temporarily enter and exit the gas turbine engine via the at least one port and having a first portion and a second portion that are separated by at least a first area of articulation. A first inertial measurement unit is affixed with respect to that first portion and a second inertial measurement unit is affixed with respect to that second portion. A control circuit operably couples to those inertial measurement units and receives corresponding information regarding those portions of the tool. The control circuit can then process that received information to generate positional proprioception information as regards those monitored tool portions.