Vehicle mounted system and method for capturing and processing physical data
First Claim
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1. A method for capturing and processing physical data to show discrete defects found within a target object, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a vehicle, including;
i) a sensor, mounted to the vehicle, designed and configured to record a continuous stream of data as the vehicle moves relative to the target object;
ii) a global positioning system recorder, mounted to the vehicle, designed and configured to record geo-spatial data regarding the target object and vehicle;
b) downloading the continuous stream of data and the geo-spatial data to a data processing system;
c) creating, using the data processing system, a digitally reduced data stream, including at least one piece of discrete data from the continuous stream of data; and
d) associating the geo-spatial data to the digitally reduced data stream so that each piece of discrete data maintains a specific geo-spatial location.
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Abstract
A system and method for collecting and processing physical data obtained by various detection devices mounted to a vehicle, such as an aerial craft. Specifically, the present illustrated embodiment(s) involve the use of an aerial craft, such as a helicopter, to capture continuous visual, spatial, and related physical data, and a method for selecting certain representative pieces of the captured unprocessed data to create a discrete stream of processed data. The discrete data stream may then be analyzed and any defects and/or anomalies may be identified within the physical data.
81 Citations
70 Claims
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1. A method for capturing and processing physical data to show discrete defects found within a target object, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a vehicle, including;
i) a sensor, mounted to the vehicle, designed and configured to record a continuous stream of data as the vehicle moves relative to the target object;
ii) a global positioning system recorder, mounted to the vehicle, designed and configured to record geo-spatial data regarding the target object and vehicle;
b) downloading the continuous stream of data and the geo-spatial data to a data processing system;
c) creating, using the data processing system, a digitally reduced data stream, including at least one piece of discrete data from the continuous stream of data; and
d) associating the geo-spatial data to the digitally reduced data stream so that each piece of discrete data maintains a specific geo-spatial location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of inspecting a power corridor for defects and environmental conditions, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing an aircraft, including;
i) a sensor, mounted to the aircraft, designed and configured to record a continuous stream of data as the aircraft traverses a length of the power corridor; and
ii) a global positioning system recorder, mounted to the aircraft, designed and configured to record geo-spatial data that is synchronous to the continuous stream of data;
b) downloading the continuous stream of data to a data processing system;
c) creating a digitally reduced data stream from the continuous stream of data, wherein the digitally reduced data stream contains data processed within the data processing system;
d) analyzing the digitally reduced data stream to identify occurrences of a certain data parametric therein; and
e) generating analyzed imagery and inspection report databases containing the digitally reduced data stream with both the geo-spatial data and the identified data parametric synchronized to the digitally reduced data stream. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 60)
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51. A system architecture for capturing and processing physical data to show discrete defects found within a target object, comprising:
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a) a sensor, designed and configured to be mounted to a vehicle and to collect the physical data about the target object;
b) a sensor control system, integrally connected to the sensor, designed and configured to control the sensor;
c) a data processing system, integrally connected to the sensor control system, designed and configured to receive the physical data from the sensor control system and to synchronize the physical data into a geo-spatially organized format;
d) a digitally reduced data stream, derived from the physical data within the data processing system, designed and configured to retain multiple frame rates for distinct subsets of the physical data;
e) a data analysis system, designed to receive the digitally reduced data stream, and configured to identify defects and anomalies within the target object; and
f) a set of analyzed imagery data and inspection reports, generated by the data analysis system that correspond with the digitally reduced data stream and identified defects and anomalies within the target object. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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Specification