Method for Tracking Location of Two-Dimensional Non-Destructive Inspection Scanner on Target Object Using Scanned Structural Features

摘要

Systems and methods for tracking the location of a non-destructive inspection (NDI) scanner using images of a target object acquired by the NDI scanner. The system includes a frame, an NDI scanner supported by the frame, a system configured to enable motorized movement of the frame, and a computer system communicatively coupled to receive sensor data from the NDI scanner and track the location of the NDI scanner. The NDI scanner includes a two-dimensional (2-D) array of sensors. Subsurface depth sensor data is repeatedly (recurrently, continually) acquired by and output from the 2-D sensor array while at different locations on a surface of the target object. The resulting 2-D scan image sequence is fed into an image processing and feature point comparison module that is configured to track the location of the scanner relative to the target object using virtual features visible in the acquired scan images.