System and method for inspection of structures and objects by swarm of remote unmanned vehicles

• US 8,060,270 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2008
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Mansouri, Ali Reza, Saad, Emad William, Vian, John Lyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARC-COLEMAN, MARTHE Y
• Application Number:
  US12/124,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20100268409A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 701/23, 701/24, 701/25, 701/26, 701/29, 700/245, 700/264, 180/167, 180/168, 348/144
• US Class Current: 701/24
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/104 involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00

Abstract

A method for inspecting structures that includes using a plurality of independent unmanned mobile vehicles. The unmanned mobile vehicles are equipped with a control and guidance system for enabling each unmanned mobile vehicle to operate autonomously. Each unmanned mobile vehicle may be programmed with an operating program that defines a path of travel for it, relative to a structure to be inspected. The unmanned mobile vehicles are deployed so that they cooperatively form a swarm that travels about the structure. At least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles is used to obtain inspection data of a portion of the structure as it executes its respective operating program.

Claims

1. A method for inspecting structures, comprising:

using a plurality of independent unmanned mobile vehicles;

equipping each of said unmanned mobile vehicles with a control and guidance system for enabling each said unmanned mobile vehicle to operate autonomously;

programming each said unmanned mobile vehicle with an operating program that defines a predetermined path of travel for each said unmanned mobile vehicle, relative to a structure to be inspected, and;

deploying each said unmanned mobile vehicle so that said unmanned mobile vehicles cooperatively form a swarm that travels about said structure, with each of said unmanned vehicles following its respective said predetermined path of travel relative to the structure, and further such that each said unmanned mobile vehicle inspects only a designated portion of the structure; and

using said unmanned mobile vehicles to obtain inspection data in accordance with their respective inspected portions of the structure, as obtained while each said unmanned mobile vehicle executes its respective said operating program, so that an entirety of said structure is inspected.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using said unmanned mobile vehicles to obtain inspection data for a portions of said structure comprises using a camera on said at least one unmanned mobile vehicle to image an image of a portion of said structure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said unmanned mobile vehicles obtains images of portions of said structure while executing its respective said operating program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein programming each said unmanned mobile vehicle with an operating program that defines said predetermined path of travel, relative to a structure to be inspected, comprises programming each said unmanned mobile vehicle with a unique operating program that causes each said unmanned mobile vehicle to follow said predetermined path of travel, relative to said structure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each said unmanned mobile vehicle obtains a plurality of images of said structure while following said predetermined path of travel.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each said unmanned mobile vehicle stores said plurality of images of said structure in an onboard memory.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said stored images comprise a video stream.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising using at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles to wirelessly communicate said inspection data to a remote centralized inspection station for analysis.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using a plurality of unmanned rotorcraft.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a remote centralized inspection station to communicate with said unmanned mobile vehicles and to wirelessly modify said operating programs associated with remaining ones of said mobile unmanned vehicles in real time when one of said unmanned mobile vehicles becomes inoperable.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using one of:

a plurality of unmanned land vehicles;

a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles; and

a plurality of unmanned marine vehicles.

12. A method for inspecting structures, comprising:

using a plurality of independent unmanned mobile vehicles;

equipping each of said unmanned mobile vehicles with a control and guidance system for enabling each said unmanned mobile vehicle to operate autonomously;

programming each said unmanned mobile vehicle with an operating program that defines a predetermined, unique path of travel for each said unmanned mobile vehicle, each said predetermined, unique path of travel relating to only a designated portion of a structure being inspected;

deploying each said unmanned mobile vehicle so that said unmanned mobile vehicles cooperatively form a swarm with each travelling about said structure in accordance with its respective said predetermined, unique path of travel;

using said unmanned mobile vehicles to obtain images of only portions of said structure, in accordance with their respective said operating programs, as each said unmanned mobile vehicle executes its respective said operating program, so that said unmanned mobile vehicles collectively inspect an entirety of said structure; and

causing each said unmanned mobile vehicle to wirelessly transmit said images to a remote centralized inspection station.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using at least one of:

a plurality of airborne mobile vehicles;

a plurality of mobile land vehicles; and

a plurality of mobile marine vehicles.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein using said unmanned mobile vehicles to obtain images of portions of said structure comprises obtaining at least one of:

color images of portions of said structure;

color video of portions of said structure;

black and white images of portions of said structure;

infrared images of portions of said structure; and

infrared video of portions of said structure.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using a plurality of unmanned rotorcraft.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising equipping each of said unmanned mobile vehicles with a health monitoring system to monitor at least one operational parameter thereof.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein said images are provided to said remote centralized inspection station in real time.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising equipping each of said unmanned mobile vehicles with an audio pickup device to pick up audio signals emanating from said structure.

19. A system for inspecting structures, comprising:

a plurality of independent unmanned mobile vehicles;

each of said unmanned mobile vehicles having a control and guidance system for enabling each said unmanned mobile vehicle to operate autonomously;

each of said unmanned mobile vehicles including an operating program that defines a predetermined path of travel for each said unmanned vehicle, relative to only a designated portion of a structure to be inspected, so that in operation said unmanned mobile vehicles cooperatively form a swarm that moves about said structure in accordance with their respective said predetermined paths of travel to cooperatively inspect an entirety of said structure; and

at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles including an imaging device to obtain an image of a portion of said structure as it executes its respective said operating program.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a remote centralized inspection station in wireless communication with each of said unmanned mobile vehicles, and

said at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles including a wireless transceiver for wirelessly transmitting said image to said remote centralized inspection station while travelling along its said predetermined path of travel.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein said remote centralized inspection station includes a wireless transceiver for wirelessly communicating a different operating program to said at least one unmanned vehicle to assign a new path of travel to said at least one unmanned mobile vehicle.