35,548 research outputs found
Technology Advances for Space Shuttle Processing
The Space Systems Integration and Operations Research Applications (SIORA) Program was initiated in late 1986 as a cooperative applications research effort between Stanford University, NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and Lockheed Space Operations Company (LSOC). One of the major initial SIORA tasks was the application of automation and robotics technology to all aspects of the Shuttle tile processing and inspection system. This effort has adopted a systems engineering approach consisting of an integrated set of rapid prototyping testbeds in which a government/university/industry team of users, technologists, and engineers test and evaluate new concepts and technologies within the operational world of Shuttle. These integrated testbeds include speech recognition and synthesis, LASER imaging systems, distributed Ada programming environments, distributed relational database architectures, distributed computer network architectures, multi-media workbenches, and human factors considerations
RAO-II: an AUV for underwater inspection
AIRSUB is a research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science
and Technology whose aim is to explore the industrial applications of
underwater robots. The Systems, Robotics and Vision Group (SRV) from
the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) is responsible for the subproject
of cable/pipeline inspection [1]. To this purpose, an Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle (AUV) is under development as a platform to test the
vision algorithms, control strategies and software architectures devised
in the last years. This paper describes the main characteristics of the new
platform, which is based on a commercial Remotely Operated Vehicle
(ROV). The original vehicle has been deeply modifi ed in structure as well
as in its electric, electronic and sensorial facets to obtain fully autonomous
operation
Miniature mobile sensor platforms for condition monitoring of structures
In this paper, a wireless, multisensor inspection system for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of materials is described. The sensor configuration enables two inspection modes-magnetic (flux leakage and eddy current) and noncontact ultrasound. Each is designed to function in a complementary manner, maximizing the potential for detection of both surface and internal defects. Particular emphasis is placed on the generic architecture of a novel, intelligent sensor platform, and its positioning on the structure under test. The sensor units are capable of wireless communication with a remote host computer, which controls manipulation and data interpretation. Results are presented in the form of automatic scans with different NDE sensors in a series of experiments on thin plate structures. To highlight the advantage of utilizing multiple inspection modalities, data fusion approaches are employed to combine data collected by complementary sensor systems. Fusion of data is shown to demonstrate the potential for improved inspection reliability
Transfer Learning-Based Crack Detection by Autonomous UAVs
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have recently shown great performance
collecting visual data through autonomous exploration and mapping in building
inspection. Yet, the number of studies is limited considering the post
processing of the data and its integration with autonomous UAVs. These will
enable huge steps onward into full automation of building inspection. In this
regard, this work presents a decision making tool for revisiting tasks in
visual building inspection by autonomous UAVs. The tool is an implementation of
fine-tuning a pretrained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for surface crack
detection. It offers an optional mechanism for task planning of revisiting
pinpoint locations during inspection. It is integrated to a quadrotor UAV
system that can autonomously navigate in GPS-denied environments. The UAV is
equipped with onboard sensors and computers for autonomous localization,
mapping and motion planning. The integrated system is tested through
simulations and real-world experiments. The results show that the system
achieves crack detection and autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments
for building inspection
Autonomous Robot Navigation with Rich Information Mapping in Nuclear Storage Environments
This paper presents our approach to develop a method for an unmanned ground
vehicle (UGV) to perform inspection tasks in nuclear environments using rich
information maps. To reduce inspectors' exposure to elevated radiation levels,
an autonomous navigation framework for the UGV has been developed to perform
routine inspections such as counting containers, recording their ID tags and
performing gamma measurements on some of them. In order to achieve autonomy, a
rich information map is generated which includes not only the 2D global cost
map consisting of obstacle locations for path planning, but also the location
and orientation information for the objects of interest from the inspector's
perspective. The UGV's autonomy framework utilizes this information to
prioritize locations to navigate to perform the inspections. In this paper, we
present our method of generating this rich information map, originally
developed to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) Robotics Challenge. We demonstrate the performance of our method in a
simulated testbed environment containing uranium hexafluoride (UF6) storage
container mock ups
Active Classification: Theory and Application to Underwater Inspection
We discuss the problem in which an autonomous vehicle must classify an object
based on multiple views. We focus on the active classification setting, where
the vehicle controls which views to select to best perform the classification.
The problem is formulated as an extension to Bayesian active learning, and we
show connections to recent theoretical guarantees in this area. We formally
analyze the benefit of acting adaptively as new information becomes available.
The analysis leads to a probabilistic algorithm for determining the best views
to observe based on information theoretic costs. We validate our approach in
two ways, both related to underwater inspection: 3D polyhedra recognition in
synthetic depth maps and ship hull inspection with imaging sonar. These tasks
encompass both the planning and recognition aspects of the active
classification problem. The results demonstrate that actively planning for
informative views can reduce the number of necessary views by up to 80% when
compared to passive methods.Comment: 16 page
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