Systems and methods for analyzing data in a non-destructive testing system

• US 10,387,237 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2015
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Domke, Michael Christopher, Messinger, Jason Howard, Soorianarayanan, Sekhar, Lambdin, Thomas Eldred, Sbihli, Scott Leo
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US14/974,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20160110243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/00 Testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof monitoring of programme-control systems G05B19/048, G05B19/406
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0208 characterized by the configuration of the monitoring system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance

Abstract

A collaboration system may include a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device that may communicate with at least one other computing device via a computing network. The computing network may communicatively couple a plurality of computing devices and the NDT inspection device may acquire inspection data, establish a communication connection to the at least one other computing device, and send the data to the at least one other computing device. There, the at least one other computing device may analyze the data. After the data is analyzed, the NDT inspection device may receive the analyzed data from the at least one other computing device.

Claims

1. A collaboration system, comprising:

a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other computing device via a computing network, wherein the computing network is configured to communicatively couple to a plurality of computing devices and wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to;

perform an inspection of an equipment using at least one non-destructive testing technique to detect a condition of the equipment, the inspection producing inspection data indicating the condition of the inspected equipment;

establish a wireless communication connection to the at least one other computing device;

send, via the established wireless communication connection, the inspection data to the at least one other computing device,

send an indication of one or more predictive analytic algorithms to the at least one other computing device, wherein the at least one other computing device analyzes the inspection data using the one or more algorithms and according to the indication to predict an amount of useful life of the inspected equipment; and

receive the analyzed data from the at least one other computing device for continuation of the inspection based on the analyzed data.

2. The collaboration system of claim 1, wherein the inspection data comprises raw data.

3. The collaboration system of claim 2, wherein the raw data comprises ultrasound data, eddy current inspection data, radiography data, image data, video data, audio data, or any combination thereof.

4. The collaboration system of claim 1, wherein the at least one other computing device includes a cloud computing network comprising one or more processors configured to analyze the inspection data.

5. The collaboration system of claim 1, wherein the at least one other computing device includes a server, a desktop, a laptop, a mobile device, or a combination thereof, comprising one or more processors configured to analyze the inspection data.

6. The collaboration system of claim 1, wherein the at least one other computing device is configured to perform one or more iterations of data analysis on the inspection data, and to transmit results of each iteration to the NDT device.

7. The collaboration system of claim 1, wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to receive one or more reports from the at least one other computing device, wherein the one or more reports are generated based on the analyzed data.

8. A computing device comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to:

establish a wireless communication connection to a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device;

receive, via the established wireless communication connection, data from the NDT inspection device produced as a result of the NDT inspection device performing an inspection of equipment using at least one non-destructive testing technique to detect a condition of the equipment, the data indicating the condition of the inspected equipment;

receive, from the NDT inspection device, an indication of one or more predictive analytic algorithms in which to analyze the data;

perform an analysis of the data using the one or more predictive analytic algorithms to predict an amount of useful life of the inspected equipment; and

send the analysis of the data to another computing device.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are configured to send a request for additional information to the other computing device based on the analysis of the data.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the analysis comprises applying one or more filters on the data.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the analysis comprises a report summarizing one or more findings of the analysis, one or more recommendations associated with the analysis, or any combination thereof.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the report comprises information regarding a defect size, a defect location, a defect type, or any combination thereof associated with an asset being inspected by the NDT inspection devices.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein performing the analysis comprises performing a plurality of iterations of analysis on the data using the one or more algorithms.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions configured to cause at least one data processor to:

establish a wireless communication connection to a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device;

receive, via the established wireless communication connection, raw data from the NDT inspection device produced as a result of the NDT inspection device performing an inspection of one or more assets of turbomachinery equipment using at least one non-destructive testing technique to detect a condition of the one or more assets, the raw data indicating the condition of the inspected one or more assets of turbomachinery equipment;

receive metadata associated with the raw data, the metadata including an indication of the one or more assets of turbomachinery equipment;

organize the raw data based on the metadata;

modify the metadata to make a creator of the raw data anonymous; and

store the raw data in one or more databases,

wherein the raw data is analyzed using one or more data analysis tools configured to analyze the data for one or more measurements associated with an asset being inspected by the NDT inspection device, assisted and/or automatic defect recognition in the asset, disposition information on the asset, and any combination thereof, and wherein the output of the analysis includes a determination of trends, operational life, or maximum and minimum parameters.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the metadata is modified to remove a location where the one or more assets are installed, to remove one or more entities who purchased the one or more assets, or any combination thereof.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the raw data comprises ultrasound data, eddy current inspection data, radiography data, image data, video data, audio data, or any combination thereof.