Putting Automated Visual Inspection Systems To Work On The Factory Floor: What's Missing?

Science.gov (United States)

Waltz, Frederick M.; Snyder, Michael A.; Batchelor, Bruce G.

1990-02-01

Machine vision systems and other automated visual inspection (AVI) systems have been proving their usefulness in factories for more than a decade. In spite of this, the number of installed systems is far below the number that could profitably be employed. In the opinion of the authors, the primary reason for this is the high cost of customizing vision systems to meet applications requirements. A three-part approach to this problem has proven to be useful: 1. A multi-phase paradigm for customer interaction, system specification, system development, and system installation; 2. A powerful and easy-to-use system development environment, including a a flexible laboratory lighting setup, plus software-based tools to assist in the design of image acquisition systems, b. an image processing environment with a very large repertoire of image processing and feature extraction operations and an easy-to-use command interpreter having macro capabilities, and c. an image analysis environment with high-level constructs, a flexible and powerful syntax, and a "seamless" interface to the image processing level; and 3. A moderately-priced high-speed "target" system fully compatible with the development environment, so that algorithms developed thereon can be transferred directly to the factory environment without further development costs or reprogramming. Items 1 and 2 are covered in other papers1,23,4,5 and are touched on here only briefly. Item 3 is the main subject of this paper. Our major motivation in presenting this paper is to offer suggestions to vendors developing commercial boards and systems, in hopes that the special needs of industrial inspection can be met.

Remote visual inspection of nuclear fuel pellets with fiber optics and video image processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore, F.W.

1986-01-01

Westinghouse Hanford Company has designed and is constructing a nuclear fuel fabrication process line for the Department of Energy. This process line includes a pellet surface inspection system that remotely inspects the cylindrical surface of nuclear fuel pellets for surface spots, flaws, or discoloration. The pellets are inspected on a 100 percent basis after pellet sintering. A feeder will deliver the pellets directly to a fiber optic inspection head. The inspection head will view one pellet surface at a time. The surface image of the pellet will be imaged to a closed-circuit color television camera (CCTV). The output signal of the CCTV will be input to a digital imaging processor that stores approximately 25 pellet images at a time. A human operator will visually examine the images of the pellet surfaces on a high resolution monitor and accept or reject the pellets based on visual standards. The operator will use a digitizing tablet to record the location of rejected pellets, which will then be automatically removed from the product stream. The system is expandable to automated disposition of the pellet surface image

Remote visual inspection of nuclear fuel pellets with fiber optics and video image processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore, F.W.

1985-01-01

Westinghouse Hanford Company has designed and is constructing a nuclear fuel fabrication process line for the Department of Energy. This process line includes a pellet surface inspection system that remotely inspects the cylindrical surface of nuclear fuel pellets for surface spots, flaws, or discoloration. The pellets are inspected on a 100% basis after pellet sintering. A feeder will deliver the pellets directly to fiber optic inspection head. The inspection head will view one pellet surface at a time. The surface image of the pellet will be imaged to a closed-circuit color television camera (CCTV). The output signal of the CCTV will be input to a digital imaging processor that stores approximately 25 pellet images at a time. A human operator will visually examine the images of the pellet surfaces on a high resolution monitor and accept or reject the pellets based on visual standards. The operator will use a digitizing tablet to record the location of rejected pellets, which will then be automatically removed from the product stream. The system is expandable to automated disposition of the pellet surface image

Automated ultrasonic shop inspection of reactor pressure vessel forgings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farley, J.M.; Dikstra, B.J.; Hanstock, D.J.; Pople, C.H.

1986-01-01

Automated ultrasonic shop inspection utilizing a computer-controlled system is being applied to each of the forgings for the reactor pressure vessel of the proposed Sizewell B PWR power station. Procedures which utilize a combination of high sensitivity shear wave pulse echo, 0 degrees and 70 degrees angled longitudinal waves, tandem and through-thickness arrays have been developed to provide comprehensive coverage and an overall reliability of inspection comparable to the best achieved in UKAEA defect detection trials and in PISC II. This paper describes the ultrasonic techniques, the automated system (its design, commissioning and testing), validation and the progress of the inspections

Remote visual inspection of nuclear fuel pellets with fiber optics and video image processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore, F.W.

1987-01-01

Westinghouse Hanford Company has designed and constructed a nuclear fuel fabrication process line for the U.S. Department of Energy. This process line includes a system that remotely inspects the cylindrical surface of nuclear fuel pellets for surface spots, flaws, or discoloration. The pellets are inspected on a 100% basis after pellet sintering. A feeder delivers the pellets directly to a fiber optic inspection head, which views one pellet surface at a time and images it to a closed-circuit color television camera (CCTV). The output signal of the CCTV is input to a digital imaging processor that stores approximately 25 pellet images at a time. A human operator visually examines the images of the pellet surfaces on a high resolution monitor and accepts or rejects the pellets based on visual standards. The operator uses a digitizing tablet to record the location of rejected pellets, which are then automatically removed from the product stream. The system is expandable to automated disposition of the pellet surface image

Recent advances in automated ultrasonic inspection of Magnox power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wooldridge, A.B.

2006-01-01

Magnox Electric operates a number of Magnox nuclear power stations, some of which have presented difficult inspection challenges. This paper will describe recent advances in automated ultrasonic techniques which have enabled additional, fully effective and qualified inspections to be introduced. The examples chosen involve phased array inspection of fillet welds and the introduction of 3D data display and analysis using NDT Workbench. Ultrasonic phased arrays have been optimised for inspection of fillet welded structures where physical access for the operator is very awkward and the surfaces available for probe scanning are very restricted. In addition to controlling the beam direction and focus depth, the systems have also optimised the depth of field by varying the number of phased array elements fired at a given time. These phased array inspections are substantially superior in quality, reliability and speed compared with that achievable by conventional manual inspection. Analysis of automated ultrasonic data can be very time-consuming if defects are complex. NDT Workbench significantly improves data analysis for complex geometries and defects primarily because of the 3D data displays of multiple beams and automated logging of measurements. This system has been used in 2005 for data analysis of complex defects where sizing accuracy was particularly important. Both these inspection procedures have been formally qualified using the ENIQ (European Network for Inspection Qualification) Methodology. Such qualification was achieved more easily because of the rigorous in house training programmes established in each case and because the Technical Justifications referred to evidence from previous related qualifications whenever appropriate. The timely achievement of inspection qualification demonstrates that the new systems have reached sufficient maturity to be used with confidence for high quality inspections. (orig.)

Framework for Automated GD&T Inspection Using 3D Scanner

Science.gov (United States)

Pathak, Vimal Kumar; Singh, Amit Kumar; Sivadasan, M.; Singh, N. K.

2018-04-01

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is a typical dialect that helps designers, production faculty and quality monitors to convey design specifications in an effective and efficient manner. GD&T has been practiced since the start of machine component assembly but without overly naming it. However, in recent times industries have started increasingly emphasizing on it. One prominent area where most of the industries struggle with is quality inspection. Complete inspection process is mostly human intensive. Also, the use of conventional gauges and templates for inspection purpose highly depends on skill of workers and quality inspectors. In industries, the concept of 3D scanning is not new but is used only for creating 3D drawings or modelling of physical parts. However, the potential of 3D scanning as a powerful inspection tool is hardly explored. This study is centred on designing a procedure for automated inspection using 3D scanner. Linear, geometric and dimensional inspection of the most popular test bar-stepped bar, as a simple example was also carried out as per the new framework. The new generation engineering industries would definitely welcome this automated inspection procedure being quick and reliable with reduced human intervention.

40 CFR 202.23 - Visual tire inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Visual tire inspection. 202.23 Section... Visual tire inspection. No motor carrier subject to these regulations shall at any time operate any motor vehicle of a type to which this regulation is applicable on a tire or tires having a tread pattern which...

Automation and mechanization of in-service inspection of selected equipment in FRG's nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metke, E.

1988-01-01

The procedures and equipment are described for the automation and mechanization of in-service inspection in nuclear power plants in the FRG, used by the KWU company. Checks of the pressure vessel are done by visual means using a colour tv camera, the method of eddy currents and the ultrasonic method. An analysis is made of the time schedule of ultrasonic inspections, and the central column manipulator is described which allows to check all internal regions of the pressure vessel. Attention is also devoted to other devices, e.g., those for prestressing shanks, cleaning shanks, cleaning thread apertures, etc. A combined probe using the ultrasonic method and the eddy current method serves the inspection of heat exchange tubes in the steam generator. For inspecting the primary circuit the KWU company uses devices for checking and working the inner surface of pipes. Briefly described are examples of using KWU equipment in nuclear power plants in CMEA countries. (Z.M.). 11 figs., 6 refs

Comparison radiographic and automated ultrasonic inspection of pipeline tie-in welds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Connelly, T.; Gross, B.

2007-01-01

In recent years the use of automated ultrasonic inspection (AUT) for pipeline girth welds has seen rapid growth and is now used almost exclusively for all gas metal arc welding (GMAW) girth weld inspection. The following paper reviews some of the major features of ultrasonic inspection by comparison to conventional Film Radiography (RT) and reviews the use of ultrasonic inspection for pipeline and tie-in welds. (author)

Development of a surveillance robot for dimensional and visual inspection of fuel and reflector elements from the Fort St. Vrain HTGR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wallroth, C.F.; Marsh, N.I.; Miller, C.M.; Saurwein, J.J.; Smith, T.L.

1979-11-01

A robotic device has been developed for dimensional and visual inspection of irradiated HTGR core components. The robot consists of a rotary table and a two-finger probe, driven by stepping motors, and four remotely controlled television cameras. Automated operation is accomplished via minicomputer control. A total of 51 irradiated fuel and reflector elements were inspected at a fraction of the time and cost required for conventional methods

Visual inspection of vessel internals; Visuelle Inspektion von Kerneinbauten

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rabe, G. [Siemens AG KWU, Erlangen (Germany)

1999-08-01

Visual inspection has matured to a qualified testing method and has become a standard method for inspection of reactor pressure vessels. Until today, all known defects in RPV internals have been detected by visual inspection. The codes KTA 3204 and DIN 25435-4 describe the framework conditions and requirements for visual inspections, which should be adhered to to the most possible extent. Visual inspections are carried by now at all RPV internals, also at those where access is difficult and limited. The inspection robot SUSI is applied in most cases. The camera and manipulator technology meanwhile has been upgraded to a standard performance quality allowing reliable, fast and easy visual inspection. The personnel is trained accordingly, so as to keep abreast with enhancements. Qualification of the inspection system has been simplified and standardised to a large extent. (orig/CB) [Deutsch] Die Sichtpruefung ist zu einem qualifizierten Pruefverfahren gereift und hat bei der Inspektion der RDB-Einbauten einen festen Platz eingenommen. Bisher wurden alle bekannten Schaeden an den RDB-Einbauten bei der Sichtpruefung festgestellt. In der KTA 3204 und der DIN 25435-4 sind die Rahmenbedingungen und Anforderungen an die Sichtpruefung beschrieben, die es gilt, weitestgehend einzuhalten. Mittlerweile werden an allen RDB-Einbauten, auch an den nur bedingt zugaenglichen, Sichtpruefungen vorgenommen. Dabei hat das Inspektionsfahrzeug SUSI inzwischen den breitesten Raum eingenommen. Die Entwicklung der Kamera- und Manipulatortechnik hat inzwischen einen Stand erreicht, der eine sichere, schnelle und einfache Sichtpruefung zulaesst. Das Pruefpersonal wird laufend fuer die Sichtpruefung geschult und qualifiziert. Die Qualifizierung des Inspektionssystems wurde weitestgehend vereinfacht und standardisiert. (orig.)

Automated ultrasonic inspection system for nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1976-01-01

The automated system of ultrasonic inspection which was used to conduct weld inspections of the complex primary system of the Borselle PWR station is described. It relies upon mechanically traversing purpose designed multi-crystal ultrasonic probes along the welds. A number of probes are switched sequentially to provide a continuous scan. A typical scan rate of 120 scan/sec is achieved by a multiplexer capable of switching transmitter and receiver individually. The system has wide applications in other industries. (U.K.)

Automated reticle inspection data analysis for wafer fabs

Science.gov (United States)

Summers, Derek; Chen, Gong; Reese, Bryan; Hutchinson, Trent; Liesching, Marcus; Ying, Hai; Dover, Russell

2009-04-01

To minimize potential wafer yield loss due to mask defects, most wafer fabs implement some form of reticle inspection system to monitor photomask quality in high-volume wafer manufacturing environments. Traditionally, experienced operators review reticle defects found by an inspection tool and then manually classify each defect as 'pass, warn, or fail' based on its size and location. However, in the event reticle defects are suspected of causing repeating wafer defects on a completed wafer, potential defects on all associated reticles must be manually searched on a layer-by-layer basis in an effort to identify the reticle responsible for the wafer yield loss. This 'problem reticle' search process is a very tedious and time-consuming task and may cause extended manufacturing line-down situations. Often times, Process Engineers and other team members need to manually investigate several reticle inspection reports to determine if yield loss can be tied to a specific layer. Because of the very nature of this detailed work, calculation errors may occur resulting in an incorrect root cause analysis effort. These delays waste valuable resources that could be spent working on other more productive activities. This paper examines an automated software solution for converting KLA-Tencor reticle inspection defect maps into a format compatible with KLA-Tencor's Klarity Defect(R) data analysis database. The objective is to use the graphical charting capabilities of Klarity Defect to reveal a clearer understanding of defect trends for individual reticle layers or entire mask sets. Automated analysis features include reticle defect count trend analysis and potentially stacking reticle defect maps for signature analysis against wafer inspection defect data. Other possible benefits include optimizing reticle inspection sample plans in an effort to support "lean manufacturing" initiatives for wafer fabs.

AUTOMATED INSPECTION OF POWER LINE CORRIDORS TO MEASURE VEGETATION UNDERCUT USING UAV-BASED IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Maurer

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Power line corridor inspection is a time consuming task that is performed mostly manually. As the development of UAVs made huge progress in recent years, and photogrammetric computer vision systems became well established, it is time to further automate inspection tasks. In this paper we present an automated processing pipeline to inspect vegetation undercuts of power line corridors. For this, the area of inspection is reconstructed, geo-referenced, semantically segmented and inter class distance measurements are calculated. The presented pipeline performs an automated selection of the proper 3D reconstruction method for on the one hand wiry (power line, and on the other hand solid objects (surrounding. The automated selection is realized by performing pixel-wise semantic segmentation of the input images using a Fully Convolutional Neural Network. Due to the geo-referenced semantic 3D reconstructions a documentation of areas where maintenance work has to be performed is inherently included in the distance measurements and can be extracted easily. We evaluate the influence of the semantic segmentation according to the 3D reconstruction and show that the automated semantic separation in wiry and dense objects of the 3D reconstruction routine improves the quality of the vegetation undercut inspection. We show the generalization of the semantic segmentation to datasets acquired using different acquisition routines and to varied seasons in time.

Automated Inspection of Power Line Corridors to Measure Vegetation Undercut Using Uav-Based Images

Science.gov (United States)

Maurer, M.; Hofer, M.; Fraundorfer, F.; Bischof, H.

2017-08-01

Power line corridor inspection is a time consuming task that is performed mostly manually. As the development of UAVs made huge progress in recent years, and photogrammetric computer vision systems became well established, it is time to further automate inspection tasks. In this paper we present an automated processing pipeline to inspect vegetation undercuts of power line corridors. For this, the area of inspection is reconstructed, geo-referenced, semantically segmented and inter class distance measurements are calculated. The presented pipeline performs an automated selection of the proper 3D reconstruction method for on the one hand wiry (power line), and on the other hand solid objects (surrounding). The automated selection is realized by performing pixel-wise semantic segmentation of the input images using a Fully Convolutional Neural Network. Due to the geo-referenced semantic 3D reconstructions a documentation of areas where maintenance work has to be performed is inherently included in the distance measurements and can be extracted easily. We evaluate the influence of the semantic segmentation according to the 3D reconstruction and show that the automated semantic separation in wiry and dense objects of the 3D reconstruction routine improves the quality of the vegetation undercut inspection. We show the generalization of the semantic segmentation to datasets acquired using different acquisition routines and to varied seasons in time.

Computer automation of ultrasonic testing. [inspection of ultrasonic welding

Science.gov (United States)

Yee, B. G. W.; Kerlin, E. E.; Gardner, A. H.; Dunmyer, D.; Wells, T. G.; Robinson, A. R.; Kunselman, J. S.; Walker, T. C.

1974-01-01

Report describes a prototype computer-automated ultrasonic system developed for the inspection of weldments. This system can be operated in three modes: manual, automatic, and computer-controlled. In the computer-controlled mode, the system will automatically acquire, process, analyze, store, and display ultrasonic inspection data in real-time. Flaw size (in cross-section), location (depth), and type (porosity-like or crack-like) can be automatically discerned and displayed. The results and pertinent parameters are recorded.

Flexible Visual Quality Inspection in Discrete Manufacturing

OpenAIRE

Petković, Tomislav; Jurić, Darko; Lončarić, Sven

2013-01-01

Most visual quality inspections in discrete manufacturing are composed of length, surface, angle or intensity measurements. Those are implemented as end-user configurable inspection tools that should not require an image processing expert to set up. Currently available software solutions providing such capability use a flowchart based programming environment, but do not fully address an inspection flowchart robustness and can require a redefinition of the flowchart if a small variation is int...

Drone Mission Definition and Implementation for Automated Infrastructure Inspection Using Airborne Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Besada, Juan A; Bergesio, Luca; Campaña, Iván; Vaquero-Melchor, Diego; López-Araquistain, Jaime; Bernardos, Ana M; Casar, José R

2018-04-11

This paper describes a Mission Definition System and the automated flight process it enables to implement measurement plans for discrete infrastructure inspections using aerial platforms, and specifically multi-rotor drones. The mission definition aims at improving planning efficiency with respect to state-of-the-art waypoint-based techniques, using high-level mission definition primitives and linking them with realistic flight models to simulate the inspection in advance. It also provides flight scripts and measurement plans which can be executed by commercial drones. Its user interfaces facilitate mission definition, pre-flight 3D synthetic mission visualisation and flight evaluation. Results are delivered for a set of representative infrastructure inspection flights, showing the accuracy of the flight prediction tools in actual operations using automated flight control.

Advanced Visualization Software System for Nuclear Power Plant Inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kukic, I.; Jambresic, D.; Reskovic, S.

2006-01-01

Visualization techniques have been widely used in industrial environment for enhancing process control. Traditional techniques of visualization are based on control panels with switches and lights, and 2D graphic representations of processes. However, modern visualization systems enable significant new opportunities in creating 3D virtual environments. These opportunities arise from the availability of high end graphics capabilities in low cost personal computers. In this paper we describe implementation of process visualization software, developed by INETEC. This software is used to visualize testing equipment, components being tested and the overall power plant inspection process. It improves security of the process due to its real-time visualization and collision detection capabilities, and therefore greatly enhances the inspection process. (author)

Automated in-core image generation from video to aid visual inspection of nuclear power plant cores

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murray, Paul, E-mail: paul.murray@strath.ac.uk [Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Technology and Innovation Centre, 99 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1RD (United Kingdom); West, Graeme; Marshall, Stephen; McArthur, Stephen [Dept. Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Royal College Building, 204 George Street, Glasgow G1 1XW (United Kingdom)

2016-04-15

Highlights: • A method is presented which improves visual inspection of reactor cores. • Significant time savings are made to activities on the critical outage path. • New information is extracted from existing data sources without additional overhead. • Examples from industrial case studies across the UK fleet of AGR stations. - Abstract: Inspection and monitoring of key components of nuclear power plant reactors is an essential activity for understanding the current health of the power plant and ensuring that they continue to remain safe to operate. As the power plants age, and the components degrade from their initial start-of-life conditions, the requirement for more and more detailed inspection and monitoring information increases. Deployment of new monitoring and inspection equipment on existing operational plant is complex and expensive, as the effect of introducing new sensing and imaging equipment to the existing operational functions needs to be fully understood. Where existing sources of data can be leveraged, the need for new equipment development and installation can be offset by the development of advanced data processing techniques. This paper introduces a novel technique for creating full 360° panoramic images of the inside surface of fuel channels from in-core inspection footage. Through the development of this technique, a number of technical challenges associated with the constraints of using existing equipment have been addressed. These include: the inability to calibrate the camera specifically for image stitching; dealing with additional data not relevant to the panorama construction; dealing with noisy images; and generalising the approach to work with two different capture devices deployed at seven different Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor nuclear power plants. The resulting data processing system is currently under formal assessment with a view to replacing the existing manual assembly of in-core defect montages. Deployment of the

Developing equipment for AGR remote visual inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

James, P.W.; Walton, P.J.

1985-01-01

The Remote Inspection Group is part of the CEGB's Generation Development and Construction Division, and has responsibility for the design, development, procurement, testing and setting to work of the equipment provided to carry out routine remote visual inspections of its AGRs. This equipment includes both the viewing devices and the necessary placement equipment. (author)

Enhancement of the reliability of automated ultrasonic inspections using tools of quantitative NDT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kappes, W.; Baehr, W.; Kroening, M.; Schmitz, V.

1994-01-01

To achieve reliable test results from automated ultrasonic inspection of safety related components, optimization and integral consideration of the various inspection stages - inspection planning, inspection performance and evaluation of results - are indispensable. For this purpose, a large potential of methods is available: advanced measurement techniques, mathematical-numerical modelling processes, artificial intelligence tools, data bases and CAD systems. The potential inherent in these methods to enhance inspection reliability is outlined by way of different applications. (orig.) [de

Automation of eddy current system for in-service inspection of turbine and generator bores

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viertl, J.R.M.

1988-01-01

The most commonly applied inspection method for ferromagnetic turbine and generator rotor bores is the magnetic particle test technique. This method is subjective, depends on the test operator's skill and diligence in identifying test indications, and suffers from poor repeatability, especially for small indications. Automation would improve repeatability. However, magnetic particle tests are not easily automated, because the data are in the form of sketches, photographs, and written and oral descriptions of the indications. Eddy current inspection has obvious potential to replace magnetic particle methods in this application. Eddy current tests can be readily automated, as the data are in the form of voltages that can be recorded, digitized, and manipulated by a computer. The current project continues the investigation of the correlation between eddy current and magnetic particle inspection. Two systems have been combined to acquire eddy current data automatically. This combination of systems consists of the Nortec-25L Eddyscope (to provide the analog eddy current signals) and the General Electric DATAQ (TM) System (to perform the automatic data acquisition). The automation of the system is discussed

Online Fabric Defect Inspection Using Smart Visual Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Changqing Sun

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Fabric defect inspection is necessary and essential for quality control in the textile industry. Traditionally, fabric inspection to assure textile quality is done by humans, however, in the past years, researchers have paid attention to PC-based automatic inspection systems to improve the detection efficiency. This paper proposes a novel automatic inspection scheme for the warp knitting machine using smart visual sensors. The proposed system consists of multiple smart visual sensors and a controller. Each sensor can scan 800 mm width of web, and can work independently. The following are considered in dealing with broken-end defects caused by a single yarn: first, a smart visual sensor is composed of a powerful DSP processor and a 2-megapixel high definition image sensor. Second, a wavelet transform is used to decompose fabric images, and an improved direct thresholding method based on high frequency coefficients is proposed. Third, a proper template is chosen in a mathematical morphology filter to remove noise. Fourth, a defect detection algorithm is optimized to meet real-time demands. The proposed scheme has been running for six months on a warp knitting machine in a textile factory. The actual operation shows that the system is effective, and its detection rate reaches 98%.

Visual Inspection of the Flow Distribution Plate Bolts of a Nuclear Steam Generator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Woo Tae; Kim, Suk Tae; Sohn, Wook; Kang, Duk Won; Kang, Seok Chul

2007-01-01

To develop a system for visually inspecting the flow distribution plate (FDP) bolts of a nuclear steam generator, we reviewed several types of similar inspection equipment. The equipment which are currently available are mostly for inspecting lower part of a steam generator such as tube sheets and annulus except ELVS (Eggcrate Visual Inspection System). However, the design concept of ELVS could not be used for developing a device which enables the visual inspection of flow distribution plate bolts. Therefore, based on the current state of the art technology on the similar equipment, we conceptually designed a new inspection system for checking the FDP bolts

Automated grain mapping using wide angle convergent beam electron diffraction in transmission electron microscope for nanomaterials.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Vineet

2011-12-01

The grain size statistics, commonly derived from the grain map of a material sample, are important microstructure characteristics that greatly influence its properties. The grain map for nanomaterials is usually obtained manually by visual inspection of the transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs because automated methods do not perform satisfactorily. While the visual inspection method provides reliable results, it is a labor intensive process and is often prone to human errors. In this article, an automated grain mapping method is developed using TEM diffraction patterns. The presented method uses wide angle convergent beam diffraction in the TEM. The automated technique was applied on a platinum thin film sample to obtain the grain map and subsequently derive grain size statistics from it. The grain size statistics obtained with the automated method were found in good agreement with the visual inspection method.

Automated x-ray television complex for inspecting standard-size dynamic objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gusev, E.A.; Luk'yanenko, E.A.; Chelnokov, V.B.; Kuleshov, V.K.; Alkhimov, Yu.V.

1993-01-01

An automated x-ray television complex based on a matrix gas-discharge converter having a large area (2.1 x 1.0 m) for inspecting standard-size freight and containers and for diagnosing industrial articles is presented. The pulsed operating mode of the complex with a 512K digital television storage makes it possible to inspect dynamic objects with a minimum dose load (20--100 μR). 6 refs., 5 figs

Visual inspection requirements for high-reliability random-access memories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andrade, A.; McHenery, J.

1981-09-01

Visual inspection requirements are given for random-access memories for deep-space satellite electronics. The requirements, based primarily on Military Standard 883B, are illustrated in the order of their manufacturing operation to clarify and facilitate inspection procedures

Machine vision system for remote inspection in hazardous environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, J.K.; Krishna, K.Y.V.; Wadnerkar, A.

2011-01-01

Visual Inspection of radioactive components need remote inspection systems for human safety and equipment (CCD imagers) protection from radiation. Elaborate view transport optics is required to deliver images at safe areas while maintaining fidelity of image data. Automation of the system requires robots to operate such equipment. A robotized periscope has been developed to meet the challenge of remote safe viewing and vision based inspection. (author)

Quantitative remote visual inspection in nuclear power industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stone, M.C.

1992-01-01

A borescope is an instrument that is used within the power industry to visually inspect remote locations. It is typically used for inspections of heat exchangers, condensers, boiler tubes, and steam generators and in many general inspection applications. The optical system of a borescope, like the human eye, does not have a fixed magnification. When viewing an object close up, it appears large; when the same object is viewed from afar, it appears small. Humans, though, have two separate eyes and a brain that process information to calculate the size of an object. These attributes are considered secondary information. Until now, making a measurement using a borescope has been an educated guess. There has always been a need to make accurate measurements from borescope images. The realization of this capability would make remote visual inspection a quantitative nondestructive testing method versus a qualitative one. For nuclear power plants, it is an excellent technique for maintaining radiation levels as low as reasonably achievable. Remote visual measurement provides distance and limits the exposure time needed to make accurate measurements. The design problem, therefore, was to develop the capability to make accurate and repeatable measurements of objects or physical defects with a borescope-type instrument. The solution was achieved by designing a borescope with a novel shadow projection mechanism, integrated with an electronics module containing the video display circuitry and a measurement computer

RNL automated ultrasonic inspection of the PISC II PWR inlet nozzle (Plate 3)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogerson, A.; Poulter, L.N.J.; Clough, P.; Cooper, A.G.

1987-01-01

In June 1984, Risley Nuclear Laboratories (RNL) performed an automated ultrasonic inspection of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) inlet nozzle (plate 3) from the international Programme of Inspection of Steel Components (PISC II) round-robin inspection programme. High-sensitivity pulse-echo detection and predominantly time-of-flight diffraction sizing techniques were employed from the clad inner surface of the nozzle using digital data collection, analysis, and display facilities developed at RNL. RNL detected 30 out of 31 intended weld flaws, achieved one hundred per cent correct acceptance of all acceptable flaws and had a correct rejection frequency on all rejectable flaws of 0.86. The results confirm that well-conceived automated inspection procedures, similar to those used by RNL in this nozzle inspection, could form the basis of a PSI/ISI procedure for reactor pressure vessel nozzle regions. Analysis of the RNL results with regard to the influence of flaw characteristics on inspection performance lends strong support to the general conclusions drawn by the PISC Data Analysis Group. In particular, the most difficult flaws to accurately size were circular smooth and rough flaws. Examination of the RNL results on individual flaws reveals valuable information on the strengths and weaknesses of the adopted procedures and points towards procedural changes that would improve inspection performance. This report describes the procedures adopted by RNL, in the inspection, and reviews the results in the light of definitive flaw information. (author)

A novel visual pipework inspection system

Science.gov (United States)

Summan, Rahul; Jackson, William; Dobie, Gordon; MacLeod, Charles; Mineo, Carmelo; West, Graeme; Offin, Douglas; Bolton, Gary; Marshall, Stephen; Lille, Alexandre

2018-04-01

The interior visual inspection of pipelines in the nuclear industry is a safety critical activity conducted during outages to ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of plant. Typically, the video output by a manually deployed probe is viewed by an operator looking to identify and localize surface defects such as corrosion, erosion and pitting. However, it is very challenging to estimate the nature and extent of defects by viewing a large structure through a relatively small field of view. This work describes a new visual inspection system employing photogrammetry using a fisheye camera and a structured light system to map the internal geometry of pipelines by generating a photorealistic, geometrically accurate surface model. The error of the system output was evaluated through comparison to a ground truth laser scan (ATOS GOM Triple Scan) of a nuclear grade split pipe sample (stainless steel 304L, 80mm internal diameter) containing defects representative of the application - the error was found to be submillimeter across the sample.

Defect sizing using automated ultrasonic inspection techniques at RNL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogerson, A.; Highmore, P.J.; Poulter, L.N.J.

1983-10-01

RNL has developed and applied automated wide-beam pulse-echo and time-of-flight techniques with synthetic aperture processing for sizing defects in clad thick-section weldments and nozzle corner regions. These techniques were amongst those used in the four test plate inspections making up the UKAEA Defect Detection Trials. In this report a critical appraisal is given of the sizing procedures adopted by RNL in these inspections. Several factors influencing sizing accuracy are discussed and results from particular defects highlighted. The time-of-flight technique with colour graphics data display is shown to be highly effective in imaging near-vertical buried defects and underclad defects of height greater than 5 mm. Early characterisation of any identified defect from its ultrasonic response under pulse-echo inspection is seen as a desirable aid to the selection of an appropriate advanced sizing technique for buried defects. (author)

A pattern-based method to automate mask inspection files

Science.gov (United States)

Kamal Baharin, Ezni Aznida Binti; Muhsain, Mohamad Fahmi Bin; Ahmad Ibrahim, Muhamad Asraf Bin; Ahmad Noorhani, Ahmad Nurul Ihsan Bin; Sweis, Jason; Lai, Ya-Chieh; Hurat, Philippe

2017-03-01

Mask inspection is a critical step in the mask manufacturing process in order to ensure all dimensions printed are within the needed tolerances. This becomes even more challenging as the device nodes shrink and the complexity of the tapeout increases. Thus, the amount of measurement points and their critical dimension (CD) types are increasing to ensure the quality of the mask. In addition to the mask quality, there is a significant amount of manpower needed when the preparation and debugging of this process are not automated. By utilizing a novel pattern search technology with the ability to measure and report match region scan-line (edge) measurements, we can create a flow to find, measure and mark all metrology locations of interest and provide this automated report to the mask shop for inspection. A digital library is created based on the technology product and node which contains the test patterns to be measured. This paper will discuss how these digital libraries will be generated and then utilized. As a time-critical part of the manufacturing process, this can also reduce the data preparation cycle time, minimize the amount of manual/human error in naming and measuring the various locations, reduce the risk of wrong/missing CD locations, and reduce the amount of manpower needed overall. We will also review an example pattern and how the reporting structure to the mask shop can be processed. This entire process can now be fully automated.

Development of Ultrasonic Visual Inspection Program for In-Vessel Structures of SFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joo, Y. S.; Park, C. G.; Lee, J. H.

2009-02-01

As the liquid sodium of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) is opaque to light, a conventional visual inspection is unavailable for the evaluation of the in-vessel structures under a sodium level. ASME Section XI Division 3 provides rules and guidelines for an in-service inspection (ISI) and testing of the components of SFR. For the ISI of in-vessel structures, the ASME code specifies visual examinations. An ultrasonic wave should be applied for an under-sodium visual inspection of the in-vessel structures. The plate-type waveguide sensor has been developed and the feasibility of the waveguide sensor technique has been successfully demonstrated for an ultrasonic visual inspection of the in-vessel structures of SFR. In this study, the C-scan image mapping program (Under-Sodium MultiView) is developed to apply this waveguide sensor technology to an under-sodium visual inspection of in-vessel structures in SFR by using a LabVIEW graphical programming language. The Under-Sodium MultiVIEW program has the functions of a double rotating scanner motion control, a high power pulser receiver control, a image mapping and a signal processing. The performance of Under-Sodium MultiVIEW program was verified by a C-scanning test

Automated phased array ultrasonic inspection system for rail wheel sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grosser, Paul; Weiland, M.G.

2013-01-01

This paper covers the design, system automation, calibration and validation of an automated ultrasonic system for the inspection of new and in service wheel set assemblies from diesel-electric locomotives and gondola cars. This system uses Phased Array (PA) transducers for flaw detection and Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMAT) for the measurement of residual stress. The system collects, analyses, evaluates and categorizes the wheel sets automatically. This data is archived for future comparison and trending. It is also available for export to a portal lathe for increased efficiency and accuracy of machining, therefore allowing prolonged wheel life.

Remote visual testing (RVT) for the diagnostic inspection of feedwater heaters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nugent, M.J.; Pellegrino, B.A.

1991-01-01

In this paper the benefits and limitations of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) on feedwater heaters will be briefly reviewed. All Remote Visual Testing (RVT) devices including borescopes, fiberscopes, videoborescopes and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras will be discussed along with currently accepted formats for documentation. The benefits of a comprehensive in-place inspection involving Remote Visual Testing will be discussed in relationship to its diagnostic capabilities. The results of eight post-service heater inspections will be discussed along with the root cause of failure of seven unique failure mechanisms. These inspections, including FWH access, RVT tool and data analysis, will be detailed

An automated miniature robotic vehicle inspection system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dobie, Gordon; Summan, Rahul; MacLeod, Charles; Pierce, Gareth; Galbraith, Walter [Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 204 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1XW (United Kingdom)

2014-02-18

A novel, autonomous reconfigurable robotic inspection system for quantitative NDE mapping is presented. The system consists of a fleet of wireless (802.11g) miniature robotic vehicles, each approximately 175 × 125 × 85 mm with magnetic wheels that enable them to inspect industrial structures such as storage tanks, chimneys and large diameter pipe work. The robots carry one of a number of payloads including a two channel MFL sensor, a 5 MHz dry coupled UT thickness wheel probe and a machine vision camera that images the surface. The system creates an NDE map of the structure overlaying results onto a 3D model in real time. The authors provide an overview of the robot design, data fusion algorithms (positioning and NDE) and visualization software.

An automated miniature robotic vehicle inspection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dobie, Gordon; Summan, Rahul; MacLeod, Charles; Pierce, Gareth; Galbraith, Walter

2014-01-01

A novel, autonomous reconfigurable robotic inspection system for quantitative NDE mapping is presented. The system consists of a fleet of wireless (802.11g) miniature robotic vehicles, each approximately 175 × 125 × 85 mm with magnetic wheels that enable them to inspect industrial structures such as storage tanks, chimneys and large diameter pipe work. The robots carry one of a number of payloads including a two channel MFL sensor, a 5 MHz dry coupled UT thickness wheel probe and a machine vision camera that images the surface. The system creates an NDE map of the structure overlaying results onto a 3D model in real time. The authors provide an overview of the robot design, data fusion algorithms (positioning and NDE) and visualization software

Visual Inspection for Caries Detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimenez, T; Piovesan, C; Braga, M M

2015-01-01

July 2014 to identify published and nonpublished studies in English. Studies of visual inspection were included that 1) assessed accuracy of the method in detecting caries lesions; 2) were performed on occlusal, proximal, or free smooth surfaces in primary or permanent teeth; 3) had a reference...... (from 5,808 articles initially identified) and 1 abstract (from 168) met the inclusion criteria. In general, the analysis demonstrated that the visual method had good accuracy for detecting caries lesions. Although laboratory and clinical studies have presented similar accuracy, clinically obtained...... caries detection method has good overall performance. Furthermore, although the identified studies had high heterogeneity and risk of bias, the use of detailed and validated indices seems to improve the accuracy of the method....

Development of FBR visual inspection technique in sodium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, T.; Nagai, S.; Shioyama, T.; Sato, M.; Karasawa, H.; Maruyama, F.; Ota, S.; Hida, T.; Kai, M.

1995-01-01

Because the reactor vessel of Fast Breeder Reactor is filled with opaque liquid sodium, it is expected to develop an acoustic visual inspection technique in sodium. The acoustic 3 dimensional image processing technique and the elemental parts of the visual inspection equipment in sodium have been developed at the first stage of the in-sodium visual inspection technique development. The cross correlation processing has been applied to improve the S/N ratio in the acoustic echo that are deteriorated by wetting in sodium and the low sensitivity that are also deteriorated by rather smaller diameter to integrate the high density multiple acoustic sensors. The improvement of S/N ratio has been realized by the cross correlation between acoustic echo data that is reflected from the objects and M-series continuous wave that is transmitted from the acoustic transducer. The high speed parallel processing circuits, in which DSPs (Digital Signal Processors) are included, have been developed to realize high speed processing by employing (the circuits connected to) each of sensors in parallel. Synthetic Aperture Focussing Technique (SAFT) has been applied to the acoustic 3-dimensional image processing. The amounts of ellipsoids must be drawn into the 3-dimensional memory to compose the 3-dimensional image by SAFT. Then, a high performance work-station has been employed to deal with enormous data to compose the acoustic 3 dimensional image. Motors and cables, which can be operated under the condition of high-temperature and high-radiation environment, have been developed as the parts of the manipulator which will be used for visual inspection equipment in sodium. A prototype drive mechanism consists of the manipulator with three joints and a scanner with an arrayed acoustic sensors which a sweeps in fan-shape mechanically. The manipulatory type prototype drive mechanism and the signal processing device have been developed and tested, and the acoustic 3-dimensional image of pyramid

Qualifying program on Non-Destructive Testing, Visual Inspection of the welding (level 2)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafee, M. A.

2011-01-01

Nondestructive testing is a wide group of analysis technique used in science and industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. Common Non-Destructive Testing methods include ultrasonic, magnetic-particle, liquid penetrate, radiographic, visual inspection and eddy-current testing. AAEA put the new book of the Non-Destructive Testing publication series that focused on Q ualifying program on Non-Destructive Testing, visual inspection of welding-level 2 . This book was done in accordance with the Arab standard certification of Non-Destructive Testing (ARAB-NDT-CERT-002) which is agreeing with the ISO-9712 (2005) and IAEA- TEC-DOC-487. It includes twenty one chapters dealing with engineering materials used in industry, the mechanical behavior of metals, metal forming equipments, welding, metallurgy, testing of welds, introduction to Non-Destructive Testing, defects in metals, welding defects and discontinuities, introduction to visual inspection theory, properties and tools of visual testing, visual testing, quality control regulations, standards, codes and specifications, procedures of welding inspections, responsibility of welding test inspector, qualification of Non-Destructive Testing inspector and health safety during working.

A development of an automated ultrasonic TOFD inspection system using an welding line tracing robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Hyun; Song, Sung Jin; Lee, Kang Won; Kim, Young Jin; Woo, Jong Sik

2006-01-01

Large scaled ships, manufactured inside of the country, should be passed welding inspection and painting film inspection. Normally, these kind of inspections are conducted by human inspectors manually, although it cause industrial disasters such as falling accidents and diving accidents frequently. In addition, Ship makers are not to give a full trust to shipowners because manual inspections cannot be conducted all over the welding parts. So, in this study we developed an automated ultrasonic TOFD inspection system using an welding line tracing robot. This system, controlled by an inspector at a remote field, can inspect welding parts of ship outer panel both under water and in air. In this paper we present the developed robot and ultrasonic TOFD inspection system and the inspection result.

A development of an automated ultrasonic TOFD inspection system using an welding line tracing robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Hyun; Song, Sung Jin; Lee, Kang Won; Kim, Young Jin; Woo, Jong Sik

2006-01-01

Large scaled ships, manufactured inside of the country, should be passed welding inspection and painting film inspection. Normally, these kind of inspections are conducted by human inspectors manually, although it cause industrial disasters such as falling accidents and diving accidents frequently. In addition, Ship makers are not to give a full trust to ship owners because manual inspections cannot be conducted all over the welding parts. So, in this study we developed an automated ultrasonic TOFD inspection system using an welding line tracing robot. This system, controlled by an inspector at a remote field, can inspect welding parts of ship outer panel both under water and in air. In this paper we present the developed robot and ultrasonic TOFD inspection system and the inspection result.

Visual inspection as one of the important elements of the quality control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paweł Szklarzyk

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Quality control of the production process allows to detect incompatibilities. One of the key elements of quality control is a visual inspection. The object of the research is to determine the essential elements having an impact on visual inspections. Research was carried out according to the BOST method designed at the Institute of Production Engineering, Technical University of Czestochowa

A method for visual inspection of welding by means of image processing of x-ray photograph

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koshimizu, Hiroyasu; Yoshida, Tohru.

1983-01-01

Computer image processing is becoming a helpful tool even in industrial inspections. A computerized method for welding visual inspection is proposed in this paper. This method is based on computer image processing of X-ray photograph of welding, in which the appearance information of weldments such as shape of weld bead really exists. Structural patterns are extracted at first and seven computer measures for inspection are calculated using those patterns. Software system for visual inspection is constructed based on these seven measures. It was experimentally made clear that this system can provide a performance of more than 0.85 correlation to human visual inspection. As a result, the visual inspection by computer using X-ray photograph became a promising tool to realize objectivity and quantitativity of welding inspection. Additionally, the consistency of the system, the possibility to reduce computing costs, and so on are discussed to improve the proposed method. (author)

Feasibility of surface sampling in automated inspection of concrete aggregates during bulk transport on a conveyor

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bakker, M.C.M.; Di Maio, F.; Lotfi, S.; Bakker, M.; Hu, M.; Vahidi, A.

2017-01-01

Automated optic inspection of concrete aggregates for pollutants (e.g. wood, plastics, gypsum and brick) is required to establish the suitability for reuse in new concrete products. Inspection is more efficient when directly sampling the materials on the conveyor belt instead of feeding them in a

Development of an automated remote inspection system for the interior of the primary containment vessel of a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senoo, Makoto; Yoshida, Tomiharu; Omote, Tatsuyuki; Tanaka, Keiji; Koga, Kazunori

1996-01-01

An automated remote inspection system has been developed for the interior of the primary containment vessel of a nuclear power plant. This system consists of an inspection robot and an operator's console. The inspection robot travels along a monorail provided in the interior of the primary containment vessel. The operator's console is located in the central control room of the power plant. We have made efforts to downsize the robot and automate the inspection and monitoring machinery. As for downsizing the robot, a 152 mm wide, 290 mm high cross-sectional area and 15 kg weight can be realized using commercially available small sensors and rearranging the parts in those sensors. As for automating the inspection and monitoring, several monitoring functions are developed using image processing, frequency analysis and other techniques applied to signals from sensors such as an ITV camera, an infrared camera and a microphone, which are mounted on the robot. Endurance tests show resistance of the robot to radiational and thermal conditions is adequate for actual use in actual power plants. (author)

Automating Visualization Service Generation with the WATT Compiler

Science.gov (United States)

Bollig, E. F.; Lyness, M. D.; Erlebacher, G.; Yuen, D. A.

2007-12-01

As tasks and workflows become increasingly complex, software developers are devoting increasing attention to automation tools. Among many examples, the Automator tool from Apple collects components of a workflow into a single script, with very little effort on the part of the user. Tasks are most often described as a series of instructions. The granularity of the tasks dictates the tools to use. Compilers translate fine-grained instructions to assembler code, while scripting languages (ruby, perl) are used to describe a series of tasks at a higher level. Compilers can also be viewed as transformational tools: a cross-compiler can translate executable code written on one computer to assembler code understood on another, while transformational tools can translate from one high-level language to another. We are interested in creating visualization web services automatically, starting from stand-alone VTK (Visualization Toolkit) code written in Tcl. To this end, using the OCaml programming language, we have developed a compiler that translates Tcl into C++, including all the stubs, classes and methods to interface with gSOAP, a C++ implementation of the Soap 1.1/1.2 protocols. This compiler, referred to as the Web Automation and Translation Toolkit (WATT), is the first step towards automated creation of specialized visualization web services without input from the user. The WATT compiler seeks to automate all aspects of web service generation, including the transport layer, the division of labor and the details related to interface generation. The WATT compiler is part of ongoing efforts within the NSF funded VLab consortium [1] to facilitate and automate time-consuming tasks for the science related to understanding planetary materials. Through examples of services produced by WATT for the VLab portal, we will illustrate features, limitations and the improvements necessary to achieve the ultimate goal of complete and transparent automation in the generation of web

Standard Practice for Visual Inspections of Photovoltaic Modules

CERN Document Server

American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia

2008-01-01

1.1 This practice covers procedures and criteria for visual inspections of photovoltaic modules. 1.2 Visual inspections of photovoltaic modules are normally performed before and after modules have been subjected to environmental, electrical, or mechanical stress testing, such as thermal cycling, humidity-freeze cycling, damp heat exposure, ultraviolet exposure, mechanical loading, hail impact testing, outdoor exposure, or other stress testing that may be part of photovoltaic module testing sequence. 1.3 This practice does not establish pass or fail levels. The determination of acceptable or unacceptable results is beyond the scope of this practice. 1.4 There is no similar or equivalent ISO standard. 1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

Influence of visual clutter on the effect of navigated safety inspection: a case study on elevator installation.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Pin-Chao; Sun, Xinlu; Liu, Mei; Shih, Yu-Nien

2018-01-11

Navigated safety inspection based on task-specific checklists can increase the hazard detection rate, theoretically with interference from scene complexity. Visual clutter, a proxy of scene complexity, can theoretically impair visual search performance, but its impact on the effect of safety inspection performance remains to be explored for the optimization of navigated inspection. This research aims to explore whether the relationship between working memory and hazard detection rate is moderated by visual clutter. Based on a perceptive model of hazard detection, we: (a) developed a mathematical influence model for construction hazard detection; (b) designed an experiment to observe the performance of hazard detection rate with adjusted working memory under different levels of visual clutter, while using an eye-tracking device to observe participants' visual search processes; (c) utilized logistic regression to analyze the developed model under various visual clutter. The effect of a strengthened working memory on the detection rate through increased search efficiency is more apparent in high visual clutter. This study confirms the role of visual clutter in construction-navigated inspections, thus serving as a foundation for the optimization of inspection planning.

A Novel Active Imaging Model to Design Visual Systems: A Case of Inspection System for Specular Surfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Azorin-Lopez

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The use of visual information is a very well known input from different kinds of sensors. However, most of the perception problems are individually modeled and tackled. It is necessary to provide a general imaging model that allows us to parametrize different input systems as well as their problems and possible solutions. In this paper, we present an active vision model considering the imaging system as a whole (including camera, lighting system, object to be perceived in order to propose solutions to automated visual systems that present problems that we perceive. As a concrete case study, we instantiate the model in a real application and still challenging problem: automated visual inspection. It is one of the most used quality control systems to detect defects on manufactured objects. However, it presents problems for specular products. We model these perception problems taking into account environmental conditions and camera parameters that allow a system to properly perceive the specific object characteristics to determine defects on surfaces. The validation of the model has been carried out using simulations providing an efficient way to perform a large set of tests (different environment conditions and camera parameters as a previous step of experimentation in real manufacturing environments, which more complex in terms of instrumentation and more expensive. Results prove the success of the model application adjusting scale, viewpoint and lighting conditions to detect structural and color defects on specular surfaces.

Prospective, observational study comparing automated and visual point-of-care urinalysis in general practice.

Science.gov (United States)

van Delft, Sanne; Goedhart, Annelijn; Spigt, Mark; van Pinxteren, Bart; de Wit, Niek; Hopstaken, Rogier

2016-08-08

Point-of-care testing (POCT) urinalysis might reduce errors in (subjective) reading, registration and communication of test results, and might also improve diagnostic outcome and optimise patient management. Evidence is lacking. In the present study, we have studied the analytical performance of automated urinalysis and visual urinalysis compared with a reference standard in routine general practice. The study was performed in six general practitioner (GP) group practices in the Netherlands. Automated urinalysis was compared with visual urinalysis in these practices. Reference testing was performed in a primary care laboratory (Saltro, Utrecht, The Netherlands). Analytical performance of automated and visual urinalysis compared with the reference laboratory method was the primary outcome measure, analysed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) and Cohen's κ coefficient for agreement. Secondary outcome measure was the user-friendliness of the POCT analyser. Automated urinalysis by experienced and routinely trained practice assistants in general practice performs as good as visual urinalysis for nitrite, leucocytes and erythrocytes. Agreement for nitrite is high for automated and visual urinalysis. κ's are 0.824 and 0.803 (ranked as very good and good, respectively). Agreement with the central laboratory reference standard for automated and visual urinalysis for leucocytes is rather poor (0.256 for POCT and 0.197 for visual, respectively, ranked as fair and poor). κ's for erythrocytes are higher: 0.517 (automated) and 0.416 (visual), both ranked as moderate. The Urisys 1100 analyser was easy to use and considered to be not prone to flaws. Automated urinalysis performed as good as traditional visual urinalysis on reading of nitrite, leucocytes and erythrocytes in routine general practice. Implementation of automated urinalysis in general practice is justified as automation is expected to reduce

Automated volumetric breast density estimation: A comparison with visual assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seo, J.M.; Ko, E.S.; Han, B.-K.; Ko, E.Y.; Shin, J.H.; Hahn, S.Y.

2013-01-01

Aim: To compare automated volumetric breast density (VBD) measurement with visual assessment according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS), and to determine the factors influencing the agreement between them. Materials and methods: One hundred and ninety-three consecutive screening mammograms reported as negative were included in the study. Three radiologists assigned qualitative BI-RADS density categories to the mammograms. An automated volumetric breast-density method was used to measure VBD (% breast density) and density grade (VDG). Each case was classified into an agreement or disagreement group according to the comparison between visual assessment and VDG. The correlation between visual assessment and VDG was obtained. Various physical factors were compared between the two groups. Results: Agreement between visual assessment by the radiologists and VDG was good (ICC value = 0.757). VBD showed a highly significant positive correlation with visual assessment (Spearman's ρ = 0.754, p < 0.001). VBD and the x-ray tube target was significantly different between the agreement group and the disagreement groups (p = 0.02 and 0.04, respectively). Conclusion: Automated VBD is a reliable objective method to measure breast density. The agreement between VDG and visual assessment by radiologist might be influenced by physical factors

Innovative automation solutions applied to nuclear fuel production and inspection processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vas, Ananth

2012-01-01

The nuclear industry in India is slated for fast paced growth in the coming years, with a great focus on increasing the capacity for producing, inspecting and finally reprocessing of nuclear fuel. Modern techniques of industrial automation such as robotics, machine vision and laser based systems have been deployed extensively to improve the productivity and output of existing and future installations, particularly for the fuel handling stages mentioned

APPLYING SIMPLE TECHNOLOGY ACCOMPLISHES VISUAL INSPECTION CHALLENGES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, C

2007-01-01

This paper discusses the successful implementation of simple video technologies at the Savannah River Site (SRS) to perform complex visual inspection, monitoring, and surveillance tasks. Because SRS facilities are similar to those of an industrial plant, the environmental and accessibility considerations for remote viewing are the primary determining factors in the selection of technology. The constraints and challenges associated with remote viewing are discussed, and examples of applications are given

Acquiring skill at medical image inspection: learning localized in early visual processes

Science.gov (United States)

Sowden, Paul T.; Davies, Ian R. L.; Roling, Penny; Watt, Simon J.

1997-04-01

Acquisition of the skill of medical image inspection could be due to changes in visual search processes, 'low-level' sensory learning, and higher level 'conceptual learning.' Here, we report two studies that investigate the extent to which learning in medical image inspection involves low- level learning. Early in the visual processing pathway cells are selective for direction of luminance contrast. We exploit this in the present studies by using transfer across direction of contrast as a 'marker' to indicate the level of processing at which learning occurs. In both studies twelve observers trained for four days at detecting features in x- ray images (experiment one equals discs in the Nijmegen phantom, experiment two equals micro-calcification clusters in digitized mammograms). Half the observers examined negative luminance contrast versions of the images and the remainder examined positive contrast versions. On the fifth day, observers swapped to inspect their respective opposite contrast images. In both experiments leaning occurred across sessions. In experiment one, learning did not transfer across direction of luminance contrast, while in experiment two there was only partial transfer. These findings are consistent with the contention that some of the leaning was localized early in the visual processing pathway. The implications of these results for current medical image inspection training schedules are discussed.

Use of remote visual in-service inspection on nuclear power plants of the CEGB

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

James, D.W.

1985-01-01

The main responsibility of the Remote Inspection Group is the design, development and procurement of the remote visual inspection equipment provided by the Generation Development and Construction Division as part of the extent of the supply for all the Central Electricity Generating Board's (CEGB) advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR). The paper describes the operation of this equipment, together with the low light-level TV cameras that have been developed for carrying out routine remote visual inspections. The camera, known as the television remote inspection unit multi-purpose head (TRIUMPH), has been designed as a series of modules. With this system it is possible to take advantage of improvements in a particular part of the camera system and to arrange to backfit an improved module to existing TRIUMPHs. To minimize the time for carrying out routine inspections during shutdown, the AGRs have been provided with storage training and test facilities. These facilities are provided with full size mock-ups of the reactor internals so that the inspection equipment can be tested and the operating staff trained before the equipment is used on the reactor. One of the other responsibilities of the Remote Inspection Group is to carry out specific power plant remote visual inspections which are required to minimize costly plant shutdowns and construction delays. Examples are given of successful inspections that have been carried out. Over 12 years' experience has now been obtained in carrying out, at short notice, difficult inspections which involve tortuous access routes. The CEGB now holds a wide range of fibrescope and small TV cameras, together with the equipment for placing the viewing device in the correct location. A number of special fibrescopes have been developed for specific inspection needs and details of these, together with other fibrescopes owned by the CEGB, are provided. (author)

Design and implementation of visual inspection system handed in tokamak flexible in-vessel robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Hesheng; Xu, Lifei; Chen, Weidong

2016-01-01

In-vessel viewing system (IVVS) is a fundamental tool among the remote handling systems for ITER, which is used to providing information on the status of the in-vessel components. The basic functional requirement of in-vessel visual inspection system is to perform a fast intervention with adequate optical resolution. In this paper, we present the software and hardware solution, which is designed and implemented for tokamak in-vessel viewing system that installed on end-effector of flexible in-vessel robot working under vacuum and high temperature. The characteristic of our in-vessel viewing system consists of two parts: binocular heterogeneous vision inspection tool and first wall scene emersion based augment virtuality. The former protected with water-cooled shield is designed to satisfy the basic functional requirement of visual inspection system, which has the capacity of large field of view and high-resolution for detection precision. The latter, achieved by overlaying first wall tiles images onto virtual first wall scene model in 3D virtual reality simulation system, is designed for convenient, intuitive and realistic-looking visual inspection instead of viewing the status of first wall only by real-time monitoring or off-line images sequences. We present the modular division of system, each of them in smaller detail, and go through some of the design choices according to requirements of in-vessel visual inspection task.

Design and implementation of visual inspection system handed in tokamak flexible in-vessel robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Hesheng; Xu, Lifei [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China (China); Chen, Weidong, E-mail: wdchen@sjtu.edu.cn [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China (China)

2016-05-15

In-vessel viewing system (IVVS) is a fundamental tool among the remote handling systems for ITER, which is used to providing information on the status of the in-vessel components. The basic functional requirement of in-vessel visual inspection system is to perform a fast intervention with adequate optical resolution. In this paper, we present the software and hardware solution, which is designed and implemented for tokamak in-vessel viewing system that installed on end-effector of flexible in-vessel robot working under vacuum and high temperature. The characteristic of our in-vessel viewing system consists of two parts: binocular heterogeneous vision inspection tool and first wall scene emersion based augment virtuality. The former protected with water-cooled shield is designed to satisfy the basic functional requirement of visual inspection system, which has the capacity of large field of view and high-resolution for detection precision. The latter, achieved by overlaying first wall tiles images onto virtual first wall scene model in 3D virtual reality simulation system, is designed for convenient, intuitive and realistic-looking visual inspection instead of viewing the status of first wall only by real-time monitoring or off-line images sequences. We present the modular division of system, each of them in smaller detail, and go through some of the design choices according to requirements of in-vessel visual inspection task.

Association and comparison between visual inspection and bitewing radiography for the detection of recurrent dental caries under restorations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lino, José R; Ramos-Jorge, Joana; Coelho, Valéria Silveira; Ramos-Jorge, Maria L; Moysés, Marcos R; Ribeiro, José C R

2015-08-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate, in posterior teeth, the association between the characteristics of the margins of a restoration visually inspected and the presence, under restorations, of recurrent or residual dental caries detected by radiographic examination. Furthermore, the agreement between visual inspection and radiographs to detect dental caries was assessed. Eighty-five permanent molars and premolars with resin restorations on the interproximal and/or occlusal faces, from 18 patients, were submitted for visual inspection and radiographic examination. The visual inspection involved the criteria of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). Bitewing radiographs were used for the radiographic examination. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between the characteristics of the margins of a restoration assessed by visual inspection (absence of dental caries, or early, established, inactive and active lesions) and the presence of recurrent caries detected by radiographs. Kappa coefficients were calculated for determining agreement between the two methods. The Kappa coefficient for agreement between visual inspection and radiographic examination was 0.19. Established lesions [odds ratio (OR) = 9.89; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.94-33.25; P caries detected by radiographs. Restorations with established and active lesions at the margins had a greater chance of exhibiting recurrent or residual lesions in the radiographic examination. The present findings demonstrate that restorations with established and active lesions at the margins when visually inspected often require removal and retreatment. © 2015 FDI World Dental Federation.

Double-Shell Tank Visual Inspection Changes Resulting from the Tank 241-AY-102 Primary Tank Leak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girardot, Crystal L.; Washenfelder, Dennis J.; Johnson, Jeremy M.; Engeman, Jason K.

2013-01-01

As part of the Double-Shell Tank (DST) Integrity Program, remote visual inspections are utilized to perform qualitative in-service inspections of the DSTs in order to provide a general overview of the condition of the tanks. During routine visual inspections of tank 241-AY-102 (AY-102) in August 2012, anomalies were identified on the annulus floor which resulted in further evaluations. In October 2012, Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC determined that the primary tank of AY-102 was leaking. Following identification of the tank AY-102 probable leak cause, evaluations considered the adequacy of the existing annulus inspection frequency with respect to the circumstances of the tank AY-102 1eak and the advancing age of the DST structures. The evaluations concluded that the interval between annulus inspections should be shortened for all DSTs, and each annulus inspection should cover > 95 percent of annulus floor area, and the portion of the primary tank (i.e., dome, sidewall, lower knuckle, and insulating refractory) that is visible from the annulus inspection risers. In March 2013, enhanced visual inspections were performed for the six oldest tanks: 241-AY-101, 241-AZ-101,241-AZ-102, 241-SY-101, 241-SY-102, and 241-SY-103, and no evidence of leakage from the primary tank were observed. Prior to October 2012, the approach for conducting visual examinations of DSTs was to perform a video examination of each tank's interior and annulus regions approximately every five years (not to exceed seven years between inspections). Also, the annulus inspection only covered about 42 percent of the annulus floor

Automated Inspection of Aircraft

Science.gov (United States)

1998-04-01

This report summarizes the development of a robotic system designed to assist aircraft inspectors by remotely deploying non-destructive inspection (NDI) sensors and acquiring, processing, and storing inspection data. Carnegie Mellon University studie...

Advances in technologies for feeder pipe inspections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ten Grotenhuis, R.; Verma, Y.; Hitchcox, T.; Sakuta, A. [Ontario Power Generation, Inspection and Maintenance Div., Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

2014-07-15

The successful development of the Matrix Inspection Technique (MIT) for feeder weld area applications has been followed up with a project to leverage the technology to address other aspects of feeder inspection. The goal of the project is to adapt the technology to provide full circumferential inspection of feeder pipes for FAC thinning and, potentially, for axial cracking. The project necessitated evolving a new generation of high speed, high element count data acquisition instruments. It also required the development of custom inspection arrays, innovative approaches to sealing the water column, use of inertial motion sensors to synthesize encoder inputs, real-time visual feedback for the operator, and enhanced automated analysis software capable of plotting the inspected configuration in 3D. The individual components of the system are currently being integrated into a whole. The results obtained to date demonstrate the approach to be fundamentally sound. (author)

Automation model of sewerage rehabilitation planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, M D; Su, T C

2006-01-01

The major steps of sewerage rehabilitation include inspection of sewerage, assessment of structural conditions, computation of structural condition grades, and determination of rehabilitation methods and materials. Conventionally, sewerage rehabilitation planning relies on experts with professional background that is tedious and time-consuming. This paper proposes an automation model of planning optimal sewerage rehabilitation strategies for the sewer system by integrating image process, clustering technology, optimization, and visualization display. Firstly, image processing techniques, such as wavelet transformation and co-occurrence features extraction, were employed to extract various characteristics of structural failures from CCTV inspection images. Secondly, a classification neural network was established to automatically interpret the structural conditions by comparing the extracted features with the typical failures in a databank. Then, to achieve optimal rehabilitation efficiency, a genetic algorithm was used to determine appropriate rehabilitation methods and substitution materials for the pipe sections with a risk of mal-function and even collapse. Finally, the result from the automation model can be visualized in a geographic information system in which essential information of the sewer system and sewerage rehabilitation plans are graphically displayed. For demonstration, the automation model of optimal sewerage rehabilitation planning was applied to a sewer system in east Taichung, Chinese Taiwan.

Remote Visual Testing (RVT) for the diagnostic inspection of feedwater heaters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nugent, M.J.; Pellegrino, B.A.

1993-01-01

Feedwater heaters are an important component in the overall plant heat rate, reliability, availability, performance and maintenance considerations at power stations. The ability to diagnose heater problems in-situ properly can lead to: (1) Preventative plugging of damaged, but unfailed tubes; (2) In-place repair procedures; (3) Incorporation of corrective actions into replacement designs or heater/unit operations. The benefits and limitations of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) on feedwater heaters are briefly reviewed. All Remote Visual Testing (RVT) including borescopes, fiberscopes, videoborescopes and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are discussed along with currently accepted formats for documentation. The benefits of a comprehensive in-place inspection involving Remote Visual Testing are discussed in relationship to its diagnostic capabilities. The results of eight post-service heater inspections are discussed along with the root cause of failure of seven unique failure mechanisms. These inspections, including FWH access, RVT tool and data analysis, are detailed. 13 figs

Inspecting a research reactor's control rod surface for pitting using a machine vision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokuhiro, Akira T.; Vadakattu, Shreekanth

2005-01-01

Inspection for pits on the control rod is performed to study the degradation of the control rod material which helps estimating the service life of the control rod at UMR nuclear reactor (UMRR). This inspection task is visually inspected and recorded subjectively. The conventional visual inspection to identify pits on the control rod surface can be automated using machine vision technique. Since the in-service control rods were not available to capture images and measure number of pits and size of the pits, the applicability of machine vision method was applied on SAE 1018 steel coupons immersed in oxygen saturated de-ionized water at 30deg, 50deg and 70deg. Images were captured after each test cycle at different light intensity to reveal surface topography of the coupon surface and analyzed for number of pits and pit size using EPIX XCAP-Std software. The captured and analyzed images provided quantitative results for the steel coupons and demonstrated that the method can be applied for identifying pits on control rod surface in place of conventional visual inspection. (author)

Development of automated ultrasonic device for in-service inspection of ABWR pressure vessel bottom head

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kojima, Y.; Matsuyama, A.

1995-01-01

An automated device and its controller have been developed for the bottom head weld examination of pressure vessel of Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). The internal pump casings and the housings of control rod prevent a conventional ultrasonic device from scanning the required inspection zone. With this reason, it is required to develop a new device to examine the bottom head area of ABWR. The developed device is characterized by the following features. (1) Composed of a mother vehicle and a compact inspection vehicle. They are connected only by an electric wire without using the conventional arm mechanism. (2) The mother vehicle travels on a track and lift up the inspection vehicle to the vessel. (3) The mother vehicle can automatically attach the inspection vehicle to the bottom head, and detach the inspection vehicle from it. (4) Collision avoidance control function with a touch sensor is installed at the front of the inspection vehicle. The device was successfully demonstrated using a mock-up of reactor pressure vessel

Automating Geospatial Visualizations with Smart Default Renderers for Data Exploration Web Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Ekenes, K.

2017-12-01

This presentation will outline the process of creating a web application for exploring large amounts of scientific geospatial data using modern automated cartographic techniques. Traditional cartographic methods, including data classification, may inadvertently hide geospatial and statistical patterns in the underlying data. This presentation demonstrates how to use smart web APIs that quickly analyze the data when it loads, and provides suggestions for the most appropriate visualizations based on the statistics of the data. Since there are just a few ways to visualize any given dataset well, it is imperative to provide smart default color schemes tailored to the dataset as opposed to static defaults. Since many users don't go beyond default values, it is imperative that they are provided with smart default visualizations. Multiple functions for automating visualizations are available in the Smart APIs, along with UI elements allowing users to create more than one visualization for a dataset since there isn't a single best way to visualize a given dataset. Since bivariate and multivariate visualizations are particularly difficult to create effectively, this automated approach removes the guesswork out of the process and provides a number of ways to generate multivariate visualizations for the same variables. This allows the user to choose which visualization is most appropriate for their presentation. The methods used in these APIs and the renderers generated by them are not available elsewhere. The presentation will show how statistics can be used as the basis for automating default visualizations of data along continuous ramps, creating more refined visualizations while revealing the spread and outliers of the data. Adding interactive components to instantaneously alter visualizations allows users to unearth spatial patterns previously unknown among one or more variables. These applications may focus on a single dataset that is frequently updated, or configurable

Application of parallel processing for automatic inspection of printed circuits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lougheed, R.M.

1986-01-01

Automated visual inspection of printed electronic circuits is a challenging application for image processing systems. Detailed inspection requires high speed analysis of gray scale imagery along with high quality optics, lighting, and sensing equipment. A prototype system has been developed and demonstrated at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) for inspection of multilayer thick-film circuits. The central problem of real-time image processing is solved by a special-purpose parallel processor which includes a new high-speed Cytocomputer. In this chapter the inspection process and the algorithms used are summarized, along with the functional requirements of the machine vision system. Next, the parallel processor is described in detail and then performance on this application is given

Active infrared thermography for visualizing subsurface micro voids in an epoxy molding compound

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Ji Yeol [Test and Package Center, Samsung Electronics, Asan(Korea, Republic of); Hwang, Soon Kyu; Choi, Jae Mook; Sohn, Hoon [Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2017-04-15

This paper presents an automated subsurface micro void detection technique based on pulsed infrared thermography for inspecting epoxy molding compounds (EMC) used in electronic device packaging. Subsurface micro voids are first detected and visualized by extracting a lock-in amplitude image from raw thermal images. Binary imaging follows to achieve better visualization of subsurface micro voids. A median filter is then applied for removing sparse noise components. The performance of the proposed technique is tested using 36 EMC samples, which have subsurface (below 150 μm ~ 300 μm from the inspection surface) micro voids (150 μm ~ 300 μm in diameter). The experimental results show that the subsurface micro voids can be successfully detected without causing any damage to the EMC samples, making it suitable for automated online inspection.

Diagnosis of regional cerebral blood flow abnormalities using SPECT: agreement between individualized statistical parametric maps and visual inspection by nuclear medicine physicians with different levels of expertise in nuclear neurology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rocha, Euclides Timoteo da, E-mail: euclidestimoteo@uol.com.b [Fundacao Pio XII, Barretos, SP (Brazil). Hospital de Cancer. Dept. de Medicina Nuclear; Buchpiguel, Carlos Alberto [Hospital do Coracao, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Dept. de Medicina Nuclear; Nitrini, Ricardo [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Dept. de Neurologia; Tazima, Sergio [Hospital Alemao Oswaldo Cruz (HAOC), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Dept. de Medicina Nuclear; Peres, Stela Verzinhase [Fundacao Pio XII, Barretos, SP (Brazil). Hospital de Cancer; Busatto Filho, Geraldo [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Div. de Medicina Nuclear

2009-07-01

Introduction: visual analysis is widely used to interpret regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) SPECT images in clinical practice despite its limitations. Automated methods are employed to investigate between-group rCBF differences in research studies but have rarely been explored in individual analyses. Objectives: to compare visual inspection by nuclear physicians with the automated statistical parametric mapping program using a SPECT dataset of patients with neurological disorders and normal control images. Methods: using statistical parametric mapping, 14 SPECT images from patients with various neurological disorders were compared individually with a databank of 32 normal images using a statistical threshold of p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons at the level of individual voxels or clusters). Statistical parametric mapping results were compared with visual analyses by a nuclear physician highly experienced in neurology (A) as well as a nuclear physician with a general background of experience (B) who independently classified images as normal or altered, and determined the location of changes and the severity. Results: of the 32 images of the normal databank, 4 generated maps showing rCBF abnormalities (p<0.05, corrected). Among the 14 images from patients with neurological disorders, 13 showed rCBF alterations. Statistical parametric mapping and physician A completely agreed on 84.37% and 64.28% of cases from the normal databank and neurological disorders, respectively. The agreement between statistical parametric mapping and ratings of physician B were lower (71.18% and 35.71%, respectively). Conclusion: statistical parametric mapping replicated the findings described by the more experienced nuclear physician. This finding suggests that automated methods for individually analyzing rCBF SPECT images may be a valuable resource to complement visual inspection in clinical practice. (author)

Industrial image processing visual quality control in manufacturing

CERN Document Server

Demant, Christian; Garnica, Carsten

2013-01-01

This practical introduction focuses on how to build integrated solutions to industrial vision problems from individual algorithms. It gives a hands-on guide for setting up automated visual inspection systems using the NeuroCheck software package.

Cervical cancer risk factors and feasibility of visual inspection with acetic acid screening in Sudan

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ibrahim, Ahmed; Rasch, Vibeke; Pukkala, Eero

2011-01-01

To assess the risk factors of cervical cancer and the feasibility and acceptability of a visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) screening method in a primary health center in Khartoum, Sudan.......To assess the risk factors of cervical cancer and the feasibility and acceptability of a visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) screening method in a primary health center in Khartoum, Sudan....

Automated single-trial assessment of laser-evoked potentials as an objective functional diagnostic tool for the nociceptive system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatem, S M; Hu, L; Ragé, M; Gierasimowicz, A; Plaghki, L; Bouhassira, D; Attal, N; Iannetti, G D; Mouraux, A

2012-12-01

To assess the clinical usefulness of an automated analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). Nociceptive laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) and non-nociceptive somatosensory electrically-evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded in 37 patients with syringomyelia and 21 controls. LEP and SEP peak amplitudes and latencies were estimated using a single-trial automated approach based on time-frequency wavelet filtering and multiple linear regression, as well as a conventional approach based on visual inspection. The amplitudes and latencies of normal and abnormal LEP and SEP peaks were identified reliably using both approaches, with similar sensitivity and specificity. Because the automated approach provided an unbiased solution to account for average waveforms where no ERP could be identified visually, it revealed significant differences between patients and controls that were not revealed using the visual approach. The automated analysis of ERPs characterized reliably and objectively LEP and SEP waveforms in patients. The automated single-trial analysis can be used to characterize normal and abnormal ERPs with a similar sensitivity and specificity as visual inspection. While this does not justify its use in a routine clinical setting, the technique could be useful to avoid observer-dependent biases in clinical research. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced InService Inspection system for BWR plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shouji, Hajime; Kobayashi, Teruo; Nagao, Tetsuya

1993-01-01

An enhanced InService Inspection system (ISI) has been developed, consisting of newly designed automated scanners, automated pipe inspection system and a high speed data acquisition/analysis station. This system uses a trackless magnetic crawler type nozzle inspection scanner attached to the nozzle shoulder by magnetic wheels. The automated pipe inspection system consists of an automated scanner, controller and high speed data acquisition station. These advanced automatic inspection systems are very useful for ISI, especially in reducing the radiation exposure and time required. (author)

Visual Inspection Displays Good Accuracy for Detecting Caries Lesions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Twetman, Svante

2015-01-01

/QUESTION: To evaluate the overall accuracy of visual methods for detecting caries lesions. SOURCE OF FUNDING: Brazilian government (Process 2012/17888-1). TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systematic review with meta-analysis of data LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 1: Good-quality, patient-oriented evidence STRENGTH OF RECOMMENDATION......ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Visual inspection for caries detection: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Gimenez T, Piovesan C, Braga MM, Raggio DP, Deery C, Ricketts DN, Ekstrand DR, Mendes FM. J Dent Res 2015;94(7):895-904. REVIEWER: Svante Twetman, DDS, PhD, Odont Dr PURPOSE...

Development of the Macro Command Editing Executive System for Factory Workers-Oriented Programless Visual Inspection System

Science.gov (United States)

Anezaki, Takashi; Wakitani, Kouichi; Nakamura, Masatoshi; Kubo, Hiroyasu

Because visual inspection systems are difficult to tune, they create many problems for the kaizen process. This results in increased development costs and time to assure that the inspection systems function properly. In order to improve inspection system development, we designed an easy-tuning system called a “Program-less” visual inspection system. The ROI macro command which consisted of eight kinds of shape recognition macro commands and decision, operation, control commands was built. Furthermore, the macro command editing executive system was developed by the operation of only the GUI without editing source program. The validity of the ROI macro command was proved by the application of 488 places.

Design and Demonstration of Automated Data Analysis Algorithms for Ultrasonic Inspection of Complex Composite Panels with Bonds

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-01

all of the ADA called indications into three groups: true positives (TP), missed calls (MC) and false calls (FC). Note, an indication position error...data review burden and improve the reliability of the ultrasonic inspection of large composite structures, automated data analysis ( ADA ) algorithms...thickness and backwall C-scan images. 15. SUBJECT TERMS automated data analysis ( ADA ) algorithms; time-of-flight indications; backwall amplitude dropout

Automated system for crack detection using infrared thermograph

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Starman, Stanislav

2009-01-01

The objective of this study was the development of the automated system for crack detection on square steel bars used in the automotive industry for axle and shaft construction. The automated system for thermographic crack detection uses brief pulsed eddy currents to heat steel components under inspection. Cracks, if present, will disturb the current flow and so generate changes in the temperature profile in the crack area. These changes of temperature are visualized using an infrared camera. The image acquired by the infrared camera is evaluated through an image processing system. The advantages afforded by the system are its inspection time, its excellent flaw detection sensitivity and its ability to detect hidden, subsurface cracks. The automated system consists of four IR cameras (each side of steel bar is evaluated at a time), coil, high frequency generator and control place with computers. The system is a part of the inspection line where the subsurface and surface cracks are searched. If the crack is present, the cracked place is automatically marked. The components without cracks are then deposited apart from defective blocks. The system is fully automated and its ability is to evaluate four meter blocks within 20 seconds. This is the real reason for using this system in real industrial applications. (author)

Towards automated visual flexible endoscope navigation.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Stap, Nanda; van der Heijden, Ferdinand; Broeders, Ivo A M J

2013-10-01

The design of flexible endoscopes has not changed significantly in the past 50 years. A trend is observed towards a wider application of flexible endoscopes with an increasing role in complex intraluminal therapeutic procedures. The nonintuitive and nonergonomical steering mechanism now forms a barrier in the extension of flexible endoscope applications. Automating the navigation of endoscopes could be a solution for this problem. This paper summarizes the current state of the art in image-based navigation algorithms. The objectives are to find the most promising navigation system(s) to date and to indicate fields for further research. A systematic literature search was performed using three general search terms in two medical-technological literature databases. Papers were included according to the inclusion criteria. A total of 135 papers were analyzed. Ultimately, 26 were included. Navigation often is based on visual information, which means steering the endoscope using the images that the endoscope produces. Two main techniques are described: lumen centralization and visual odometry. Although the research results are promising, no successful, commercially available automated flexible endoscopy system exists to date. Automated systems that employ conventional flexible endoscopes show the most promising prospects in terms of cost and applicability. To produce such a system, the research focus should lie on finding low-cost mechatronics and technologically robust steering algorithms. Additional functionality and increased efficiency can be obtained through software development. The first priority is to find real-time, robust steering algorithms. These algorithms need to handle bubbles, motion blur, and other image artifacts without disrupting the steering process.

Development of a Multi-Channel Ultrasonic Testing System for Automated Ultrasonic Pipe Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hee Jong; Cho, Chan Hee; Cho, Hyun Joon

2009-01-01

Currently almost all in-service-inspection techniques, applied in domestic nuclear power plants, are partial to field inspection technique. These kinds of techniques are related to managing nuclear power plants by the operation of foreign-produced inspection devices. There have been so many needs for development of native in-service-inspection device because there is no native diagnosis device for nuclear power plant inspection yet in Korea. In this research, we developed several core techniques to make an automated ultrasonic pipe inspection system for nuclear power plants. A high performance multi-channel ultrasonic pulser/receiver module, an A/D converter module and a digital main CPU module were developed and the performance of the developed modules was verified. The S/N ratio, noise level and signal acquisition performance of the developed modules showed proper level as we designed in the beginning.

Optical surface contouring for non-destructive inspection of turbomachinery

Science.gov (United States)

Modarress, Dariush; Schaack, David F.

1994-03-01

Detection of stress cracks and other surface defects during maintenance and in-service inspection of propulsion system components, including turbine blades and combustion compartments, is presently performed visually. There is a need for a non-contact, miniaturized, and fully fieldable instrument that may be used as an automated inspection tool for inspection of aircraft engines. During this SBIR Phase 1 program, the feasibility of a ruggedized optical probe for automatic and nondestructive inspection of complex shaped objects will be established. Through a careful analysis of the measurement requirements, geometrical and optical constraints, and consideration of issues such as manufacturability, compactness, simplicity, and cost, one or more conceptual optical designs will be developed. The proposed concept will be further developed and a prototype will be fabricated during Phase 2.

Comparing PD results with visual inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rossi, A.; Stone, G.C.

2005-01-01

ENEL is the main generation utility in Italy, with more than 200 hydro units and 120 turbine generators, totaling 39,000 MW of capacity. To help identify the maintenance needs of the stator windings in these units, ENEL has been gradually equipping the generators with partial discharge (PD) sensors that facilitate an on-line measurement of the PD. The paper describes results from several machines that have PD. In all cases, the high PD was confirmed by visual inspections. Although PD usually found the units with severe insulation problems, it was not always possible to determine the causes of the deterioration from the PD pattern. (author)

Visual beam tube inspection at the TRIGA reactor Vienna

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boeck, H.; Musilek, A.; Villa, M.

2006-01-01

Of the four TRIGA beam tubes two have been visually inspected in 1985. Prior to the inspection the reactor was shut down for 3 weeks. The fuel elements around the beam tubes were removed. Stainless steel dummy elements were inserted in the fuel positions to shield the core radiation. The active part of the Fast Rabbit Tube was removed into the beam tube loading device and transferred to an interim storage: Front dose rate was ∼ 50 mSv/h. Generally the beam tube was very clean, after the last inspection about 30 years ago. A1 cm cut was observed at the beam tube front end. A rigid endoscope was used to check the beam tube's inner surface using a 90 degree deflection objective and photo- and video equipment. The direct dose rate in front of the beam tube was about 30 mSv/h. The beam tube was vacuum cleaned. A corroded shielding tank containing boric acid has leaked. A wooden collimator partially disintegrating due to extreme temperature was removed from beam tube D. Documentation of the inspection for visible defects is produced for later comparison

Towards an automated checked baggage inspection system augmented with robots

Science.gov (United States)

DeDonato, Matthew P.; Dimitrov, Velin; Padır, Taskin

2014-05-01

We present a novel system for enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of checked baggage screening process at airports. The system requirements address the identification and retrieval of objects of interest that are prohibited in a checked luggage. The automated testbed is comprised of a Baxter research robot designed by Rethink Robotics for luggage and object manipulation, and a down-looking overhead RGB-D sensor for inspection and detection. We discuss an overview of current system implementations, areas of opportunity for improvements, robot system integration challenges, details of the proposed software architecture and experimental results from a case study for identifying various kinds of lighters in checked bags.

Automated inspection of gaps on the free-form shape parts by laser scanning technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Sen; Xu, Jian; Tao, Lei; An, Lu; Yu, Yan

2018-01-01

In industrial manufacturing processes, the dimensional inspection of the gaps on the free-form shape parts is critical and challenging, and is directly associated with subsequent assembly and terminal product quality. In this paper, a fast measuring method for automated gap inspection based on laser scanning technologies is presented. The proposed measuring method consists of three steps: firstly, the relative position is determined according to the geometric feature of measuring gap, which considers constraints existing in a laser scanning operation. Secondly, in order to acquire a complete gap profile, a fast and effective scanning path is designed. Finally, the range dimension of the gaps on the free-form shape parts including width, depth and flush, correspondingly, is described in a virtual environment. In the future, an appliance machine based on the proposed method will be developed for the on-line dimensional inspection of gaps on the automobile or aerospace production line.

Meat safety consequences of implementing visual postmortem meat inspection procedures in Danish slaughter pigs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mousing, Jan; Kyrval, J.; Jensen, Tim Kåre

1997-01-01

lymphadenitis, 7.0 faecally contaminated with Salmonella species, and 3.4 faecally contaminated with Yersinia enterocolitica would remain undetected as a result of changing from traditional to the visual inspection procedure. Two valuable reasons for implementing a visual control system are the potential...

Automatic visual inspection of metallic surfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pernkopf, F.

2002-02-01

This thesis is concerned with the objectives of automatic visual inspection of metallic surfaces and involves two major parts. The first part covers three different imaging techniques, gray-level intensity imaging, light sectioning, and photometric stereo. These imaging principles more or less strongly rely on the reflection property of the surface. Therefore, a reflection model for machine vision is introduced. The second part concentrates on the analysis of the gathered data in regard to the detection and classification of surface defects. Additionally, the evaluation of genetic algorithms with a novel encoding scheme and a large number of published sequential feature selection algorithms for selection of the subset of features achieving the best classification rate is included. The genetic algorithms and the adaptive sequential forward floating selection method achieve similar results in performance and computational efficiency. Finally, the results of feature selection and classification of 540 flaw images are presented, whereby different classification approaches such as parametric classifiers, the k-nearest-neighbor decision rule, the naive Bayes classifier, and the tree augmented naive Bayes classifier were compared. For learning the structure of the augmented naive Bayes network a new approach similar to the sequential floating algorithm is presented which achieves a higher classification accuracy than hill climbing search. Basically, the introduced techniques are applied to two fundamentally different applications, whereby the experimental results of both, inspection of high-precision surfaces such as bearing rolls and flaw detection on partially scale-covered steel blocks, are presented. For the inspection of bearing rolls, the surface reflectance properties are modeled and verified with optical experiments. The aim is to determine the optical arrangement for illumination and observation, where the contrast between errors and intact surface is maximized

Experience on inspection at PFPF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aoki, I.; Yamamoto, Y.; Takahashi, Saburo; Ooshima, Hirofumi; Kuniyasu, Kazufusa.

1993-01-01

In order to reduce a personal radiation exposure, Plutonium Fuel Production Facility (PFPF) introduced an automated MOX fabrication technology. Safeguards system for the PFPF was designed and installed so as to be compatible with automated process operation as much as possible. Introduction of these system in PFPF made possible to do the inspection measurements with unattended mode and Near Real Time Material Accountancy (NRTA), consequently inspection has been carrying out effectively and efficiently. This paper describes the new Inspection activities as a comparison with old Inspection activities based on our experience. (author)

Study on in-service visual inspection using TV camera for core support graphite components in the HTTR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishihara, Masahiro; Shibata, Taiju; Kikuchi, Takayuki; Mogi, Haruyoshi

1999-01-01

To maintain the structural integrity of graphite components during plant operation a visual inspection using a TV camera as an in-service inspection is planned in the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor. In order to verify the in-service inspection method a preliminary analytical and experimental studies were performed. In the analytical study the harmful flaw size was determined from a viewpoint of structural integrity based on the fracture mechanics approach. Furthermore, the visible flaw size was determined by the TV camera performance test with graphite test specimens having several kinds of artificial flaws. This paper presents the analytical result on the harmful flaw size and the experimental result on the visible flaw size. From both results the applicability on the visual inspection by the TV camera as the in-service inspection is discussed in this paper. (author)

Development of visual inspection technology for HTTR core support graphite structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maruyama, So; Iyoku, Tatsuo; Inagaki, Yoshiyuki; Shiozawa, Shusaku; Masuma, Yoshitaka; Miki, Toshiya.

1996-01-01

The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute is now constructing the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), which employs a visual inspection of core support graphite structure, as an inservice inspection (ISI). In this inspection, TV camera will be used to investigate the alignment and integrity of the structure. Therefore, the ISI system, a combination of radiation tolerant TV camera and graphic processing system, is developed and examined its detectability and viewing angles using a simulated hot plenum of HTTR, which has artificial defects. As a result of a series of tests, it was confirmed that this system satisfied the requirements and was quite applicable for the ISI system of HTTR core support graphite structure. In addition, further improvement of the system, like a remote control procedure, will be investigated. (author)

Remote-automation of nuclear power plant equipment inspection and maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasaki, Masayoshi; Kawamura, Hironobu; Nakano, Yoshiyuki; Izumi, Shigeru.

1984-01-01

The remotely operated automation of the checkup and maintenance of nuclear power generation facilities has largely contributed to the rise of capacity ratio of plants due to the shortening of regular inspection period and to the reduction of radiation exposure dose during working, the labor saving in working and so on. In this paper, the new technologies adopted in an automatic fuel exchanger, a remotely operated automatic CRD exchanger, a new type channel handling machine, pressure-withstanding main steam line plugs and so on for No.2 plant in the Fukushima No.2 Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc., are reported. Besides, the state of development of new remotely operated automatic machines for nuclear power use, such as CRD disassembling and cleaning device, volume reduction equipment for spent fuel channel boxes and control rods, multi-functional robots for use under high radiation and so on is described. Also the trend of development of latest robot technology which will be put in practical use in near future is outlined, such as a running manipulator for checkup and inspection, a variable form crawler vehicle and a five-leg movable manipulator. (Kako, I.)

Impact of visual inspection with acetic acid plus cryotherapy “see ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-05-18

May 18, 2016 ... Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the impact of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) plus immediate .... the “see and treat” model, women who test positive to ... or divorced, and the mean parity was 4.3 ± 1.4.

Visual inspection technology in the hard disc drive industry

CERN Document Server

Muneesawang, Paisarn

2015-01-01

A presentation of the use of computer vision systems to control manufacturing processes and product quality in the hard disk drive industry. Visual Inspection Technology in the Hard Disk Drive Industry is an application-oriented book borne out of collaborative research with the world's leading hard disk drive companies. It covers the latest developments and important topics in computer vision technology in hard disk drive manufacturing, as well as offering a glimpse of future technologies.

Development of the Automated Ultrasonic Testing System for Inspection of the flaw in the Socket Weldment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jeong Ki; Park, Moon Ho; Park, Ki Sung; Lee, Jae Ho; Lim, Sung Jin

2004-01-01

Socket weldment used to change the flow direction of fluid nay have flaws such as lack of fusion and cracks. Liquid penetrant testing or Radiography testing have been applied as NDT methods for flaw detection of the socket weldment. But it is difficult to detect the flaw inside of the socket weldment with these methods. In order to inspect the flaws inside the socket weldment, a ultrasonic testing method is established and a ultrasonic transducer and automated ultrasonic testing system are developed for the inspection. The automated ultrasonic testing system is based on the portable personal computer and operated by the program based Windows 98 or 2000. The system has a pulser/receiver, 100MHz high speed A/D board, and basic functions of ultrasonic flaw detector using the program. For the automated testing, motion controller board of ISA interface type is developed to control the 4-axis scanner and a real time iC-scan image of the automated testing is displayed on the monitor. A flaws with the size of less than 1mm in depth are evaluated smaller than its actual site in the testing, but the flaws larger than 1mm appear larger than its actual size on the contrary. This tendency is shown to be increasing as the flaw size increases. h reliable and objective testing results are obtained with the developed system, so that it is expected that it can contribute to safety management and detection of repair position of pipe lines of nuclear power plants and chemical plants

Real-time distortion correction for visual inspection systems based on FPGA

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Danhua; Zhang, Zhaoxia; Chen, Xiaodong; Yu, Daoyin

2008-03-01

Visual inspection is a kind of new technology based on the research of computer vision, which focuses on the measurement of the object's geometry and location. It can be widely used in online measurement, and other real-time measurement process. Because of the defects of the traditional visual inspection, a new visual detection mode -all-digital intelligent acquisition and transmission is presented. The image processing, including filtering, image compression, binarization, edge detection and distortion correction, can be completed in the programmable devices -FPGA. As the wide-field angle lens is adopted in the system, the output images have serious distortion. Limited by the calculating speed of computer, software can only correct the distortion of static images but not the distortion of dynamic images. To reach the real-time need, we design a distortion correction system based on FPGA. The method of hardware distortion correction is that the spatial correction data are calculated first under software circumstance, then converted into the address of hardware storage and stored in the hardware look-up table, through which data can be read out to correct gray level. The major benefit using FPGA is that the same circuit can be used for other circularly symmetric wide-angle lenses without being modified.

Using virtual reality technology for aircraft visual inspection training: presence and comparison studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Vora, Jeenal; Nair, Santosh; Gramopadhye, Anand K; Duchowski, Andrew T; Melloy, Brian J; Kanki, Barbara

2002-11-01

The aircraft maintenance industry is a complex system consisting of several interrelated human and machine components. Recognizing this, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has pursued human factors related research. In the maintenance arena the research has focused on the aircraft inspection process and the aircraft inspector. Training has been identified as the primary intervention strategy to improve the quality and reliability of aircraft inspection. If training is to be successful, it is critical that we provide aircraft inspectors with appropriate training tools and environment. In response to this need, the paper outlines the development of a virtual reality (VR) system for aircraft inspection training. VR has generated much excitement but little formal proof that it is useful. However, since VR interfaces are difficult and expensive to build, the computer graphics community needs to be able to predict which applications will benefit from VR. To address this important issue, this research measured the degree of immersion and presence felt by subjects in a virtual environment simulator. Specifically, it conducted two controlled studies using the VR system developed for visual inspection task of an aft-cargo bay at the VR Lab of Clemson University. Beyond assembling the visual inspection virtual environment, a significant goal of this project was to explore subjective presence as it affects task performance. The results of this study indicated that the system scored high on the issues related to the degree of presence felt by the subjects. As a next logical step, this study, then, compared VR to an existing PC-based aircraft inspection simulator. The results showed that the VR system was better and preferred over the PC-based training tool.

Automatic inspection for remotely manufactured fuel elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reifman, J.; Vitela, J.E.; Gibbs, K.S.; Benedict, R.W.

1995-01-01

Two classification techniques, standard control charts and artificial neural networks, are studied as a means for automating the visual inspection of the welding of end plugs onto the top of remotely manufactured reprocessed nuclear fuel element jackets. Classificatory data are obtained through measurements performed on pre- and post-weld images captured with a remote camera and processed by an off-the-shelf vision system. The two classification methods are applied in the classification of 167 dummy stainless steel (HT9) fuel jackets yielding comparable results

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 180 - Eddy Current Examination With Visual Inspection for DOT 3AL Cylinders Manufactured of Aluminum...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Eddy Current Examination With Visual Inspection... PACKAGINGS Pt. 180, App. C Appendix C to Part 180—Eddy Current Examination With Visual Inspection for DOT 3AL... procedure applicable to the test equipment it uses to perform eddy current examinations. 2. Visual...

Spectrophotometry or visual inspection to most reliably detect xanthochromia in subarachnoid hemorrhage: systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Kevin; Hann, Angus; Greenslade, Jaimi; Williams, Julian; Brown, Anthony

2014-09-01

We assess the sensitivity and specificity of xanthochromia as adjudicated by visual inspection and spectrophotometry at predicting the presence of cerebral aneurysm in patients with suspected subarachnoid hemorrhage who have a normal computed tomography (CT) head scan result. A systematic review was performed. MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched. Relevant studies with clinical data on the diagnostic accuracy of visual inspection or spectrophotometry were considered. Patients who had a normal CT head scan result followed by a lumbar puncture were included in this review. Sensitivities, specificities, and heterogeneity (I(2)) were calculated. Subgroup analyses were performed to explore reasons for the heterogeneity. There were major methodological limitations in the studies found. Twenty-two relevant articles were heterogeneous in regard to time to lumbar puncture, spectrophotometry methods, and follow-up of patients not undergoing cerebral angiography. Twelve of the 22 studies selected patients on the basis of a cerebral aneurysm or subarachnoid hemorrhage on imaging, or a positive lumbar puncture result. These studies were excluded from our initial analysis, which included only patients with clinically suspected subarachnoid hemorrhage. In this initial analysis, pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity for spectrophotometry were 87% (95% confidence interval [CI] 71% to 96%; I(2)=26%) and 86% (95% CI 84% to 88%; I(2)=96%), respectively. For visual inspection, pooled sensitivity and specificity were 83% (95% CI 59% to 96%; I(2)=52%) and 96% (95% CI 93% to 97%; I(2)=76%), respectively. Sensitivity estimates are difficult to interpret without knowing time to lumbar puncture. The heterogeneity in the underlying studies, combined with significant overlap in pooled confidence limits, makes it impossible to provide a definite conclusion about the diagnostic accuracy of spectrophotometry versus visual inspection. Copyright © 2014 American College of Emergency

Efficacy of pre-ascent climbing route visual inspection in indoor sport climbing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sanchez, X.; Lambert, Ph; Jones, G.; Llewellyn, D. J.

Pre-ascent climbing route visual inspection (route preview) has been suggested as a key climbing performance parameter although its role has never been verified experimentally. We examined the efficacy of this perceptual-cognitive skill on indoor sport climbing performance. Twenty-nine male

Visual inspection equipment for the secondary side of steam generators. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinton, M.S.; Chagnon, C.W.

1981-05-01

The development of miniature visual examination equipment capable of inspecting regions inside the tube bundles of nuclear steam generators to determine such factors as gap condition, tube outside surface condition, and material buildup is described. Tube-to-support plate interface regions at the tenth-support plate level in a once-through steam generator (Oconee 1) were visually examined. Other areas in the peripheral region were examined for conditions associated with available eddy-current and profilometer data

Fuel visual inspection system of the RTMIII

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delfin L, A.; Castaneda J, G.; Mazon R, R.; Aguilar H, F.

2007-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through the RLA/04/18 project, Management of Irradiated Fuel in Research Reactors, it recommended among other that the participant countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Mexico), develop tools to assure the integrity of the nuclear fuels used in the research reactors. The TRIGA Mark lll reactor (RTMIII) of the ININ, designed and built a system of visual inspection, that it uses a high radiation camera and image digitalisation. The project considers safety conditions of the personnel that carried out the activities of visual inspection, for that which the tool dives in the pool of the RTMIII, being held by an end in the superior part of the aluminium liner of the Reactor like it is shown in the plane No. 1. The primordial unit of the system is the visual equipment that corresponds to a camera of the Hydro-Technologie (HYTEC) VSLT 410N mark, designed to work in atmospheres under the water and/or in places of high risk. The camera has an unit of motorized orientation of stainless steel that can be rotated unboundedly in both senses, with variable speed by means of a control lever from the control unit. Together to this orientation unit is found the camera head, the one which is contained in an unit of motorized inclination of stainless steel that can be rotated azimuthally up to 370 degrees in both senses. The operation conditions of the camera are the following ones, temperature: 0 to 50 C, dose speed: ≤ 50 rad/h, operation depth: ≤ 30 mts, humidity (control unit): ≤ 80%. From the control unit it is derived an external device plug-n-play TV-Usb Aver Media marks whose function is to decode the video signal sent by the control unit and to transmit it to the computer where the image is captured in picture or video that is analyzed later on with any software ad hoc, that in our case we use the Quantikov Image Analyzer program for Windows 98 of the Dr. Lucio C. M. Pinto from Brazil who participates in the RLA/04

The price of information: Increased inspection costs reduce the confirmation bias in visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajsic, Jason; Wilson, Daryl E; Pratt, Jay

2018-04-01

In visual search, there is a confirmation bias such that attention is biased towards stimuli that match a target template, which has been attributed to covert costs of updating the templates that guide search [Rajsic, Wilson, & Pratt, 2015. Confirmation bias in visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/xhp0000090]. In order to provide direct evidence for this speculation, the present study increased the cost of inspections in search by using gaze- and mouse-contingent searches, which restrict the manner in which information in search displays can be accrued, and incur additional motor costs (in the case of mouse-contingent searches). In a fourth experiment, we rhythmically mask elements in the search display to induce temporal inspection costs. Our results indicated that confirmation bias is indeed attenuated when inspection costs are increased. We conclude that confirmation bias results from the low-cost strategy of matching information to a single, concrete visual template, and that more sophisticated guidance strategies will be used when sufficiently beneficial. This demonstrates that search guidance itself comes at a cost, and that the form of guidance adopted in a given search depends on a comparison between guidance costs and the expected benefits of their implementation.

A Study of Automation for Examination Analysis of Inservice Inspection for Nuclear Power Plant (I)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, W.

1985-01-01

The developing country, KOREA where does not possess the natural resources for traditional energy such as oil and gas, so. The nuclear energy is the most single reliable source available for closing the energy gap. For these reason, It is inavoidable to construct the nuclear power plant and to develop technology related nuclear energy. The rate of operation in large nuclear power facilities depends upon the performance of work system through design and construction, and also the applied technology. Especially, it is the most important element that safety and reliability in operation of nuclear power plant. In view of this aspects, Nuclear power plant is performed severe examinations during perceives and inservice inspection. This study provide an automation of analysis for volumetric examination which is required to nuclear power plant components. It is composed as follows: I. Introduction II. Inservice Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant * General Requirement. * Principle and Methods of Ultrasonic Test. * Study of Flaw Evaluation and Design of Classifying Formula for Flaws. III. Design of Automation for Flaw Evaluation. IV. An Example V. Conclusion In this theory, It is classifying the flaws, the formula of classifying flaws and the design of automation that is the main important point. As motioned the above, Owing to such as automatic design, more time could be allocated to practical test than that of evaluation of defects, Protecting against subjective bias tester by himself and miscalculation by dint of various process of computation. For the more, adopting this method would be used to more retaining for many test data and comparative evaluating during successive inspection intervals. Inspire of limitation for testing method and required application to test components, it provide useful application to flow evaluation for volumetric examination. Owing to the characteristics of nuclear power plant that is highly skill intensive industry and has huge system, the

A Collaborative Approach for Surface Inspection Using Aerial Robots and Computer Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Molina

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Aerial robots with cameras on board can be used in surface inspection to observe areas that are difficult to reach by other means. In this type of problem, it is desirable for aerial robots to have a high degree of autonomy. A way to provide more autonomy would be to use computer vision techniques to automatically detect anomalies on the surface. However, the performance of automated visual recognition methods is limited in uncontrolled environments, so that in practice it is not possible to perform a fully automatic inspection. This paper presents a solution for visual inspection that increases the degree of autonomy of aerial robots following a semi-automatic approach. The solution is based on human-robot collaboration in which the operator delegates tasks to the drone for exploration and visual recognition and the drone requests assistance in the presence of uncertainty. We validate this proposal with the development of an experimental robotic system using the software framework Aerostack. The paper describes technical challenges that we had to solve to develop such a system and the impact on this solution on the degree of autonomy to detect anomalies on the surface.

Using CID for internals visual inspection and measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1991-01-01

Solid state sensors for video camera applications, notably the CCD (charge coupled device), tend to be much more compact than conventional tubes and therefore offer advantages in remote viewing applications. A major drawback in the nuclear context, however, is their low tolerance to radiation. Recently, however, Electricite de France and the French company Image Technologie have been working on a solid state vision system using CID (Charge injection device) technology, which is radiation resistant up to 10 5 gamma absorbed dose. The particular application is inspection and measurement of clearances in PWR core guide tubes. The system promises to save outage time by combining metrology with visual inspection - effectively two tools in one. Clearance measurements are made via the screen on the operator's computerized control system using an electronic grid system. Images can then be stored on magnetic tape. The CID camera is located at the lower end of a system of linked rods. The rods connect to a special head at the upper end, which provides fine height adjustment of the tool assembly. (author)

National Metal Casting Research Institute final report. Development of an automated ultrasonic inspection cell for detecting subsurface discontinuities in cast gray iron. Volume 3

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burningham, J.S. [University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA (United States). Dept. of Industrial Technology

1995-08-01

This inspection cell consisted of an ultrasonic flaw detector, transducer, robot, immersion tank, computer, and software. Normal beam pulse-echo ultrasonic nondestructive testing, using the developed automated cell, was performed on 17 bosses on each rough casting. Ultrasonic transducer selection, initial inspection criteria, and ultrasonic flow detector (UFD) setup parameters were developed for the gray iron castings used in this study. The software were developed for control of the robot and UFD in real time. The software performed two main tasks: emulating the manual operation of the UFD, and evaluating the ultrasonic signatures for detecting subsurface discontinuities. A random lot of 105 castings were tested; the 100 castings that passed were returned to the manufacturer for machining into finished parts and then inspection. The other 5 castings had one boss each with ultrasonic signatures consistent with subsurface discontinuities. The cell was successful in quantifying the ultrasonic echo signatures for the existence of signature characteristics consistent with Go/NoGo criteria developed from simulated defects. Manual inspection showed that no defects in the areas inspected by the automated cell avoided detection in the 100 castings machined into finished parts. Of the 5 bosses found to have subsurface discontinuities, two were verified by manual inspection. The cell correctly classified 1782 of the 1785 bosses (99.832%) inspected.

Prajna: adding automated reasoning to the visual- analysis process.

Science.gov (United States)

Swing, E

2010-01-01

Developers who create applications for knowledge representation must contend with challenges in both the abundance of data and the variety of toolkits, architectures, and standards for representing it. Prajna is a flexible Java toolkit designed to overcome these challenges with an extensible architecture that supports both visualization and automated reasoning.

Additive Manufacturing Infrared Inspection

Science.gov (United States)

Gaddy, Darrell; Nettles, Mindy

2015-01-01

The Additive Manufacturing Infrared Inspection Task started the development of a real-time dimensional inspection technique and digital quality record for the additive manufacturing process using infrared camera imaging and processing techniques. This project will benefit additive manufacturing by providing real-time inspection of internal geometry that is not currently possible and reduce the time and cost of additive manufactured parts with automated real-time dimensional inspections which deletes post-production inspections.

NDE Technology Development Program for Non-Visual Volumetric Inspection Technology; Sensor Effectiveness Testing Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moran, Traci L. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Larche, Michael R. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Denslow, Kayte M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Glass, Samuel W. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2017-08-31

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) located in Richland, Washington, hosted and administered Sensor Effectiveness Testing that allowed four different participants to demonstrate the NDE volumetric inspection technologies that were previously demonstrated during the Technology Screening session. This document provides a Sensor Effectiveness Testing report for the final part of Phase I of a three-phase NDE Technology Development Program designed to identify and mature a system or set of non-visual volumetric NDE technologies for Hanford DST primary liner bottom inspection. Phase I of the program will baseline the performance of current or emerging non-visual volumetric NDE technologies for their ability to detect and characterize primary liner bottom flaws, and identify candidate technologies for adaptation and maturation for Phase II of the program.

Automated full matrix capture for industrial processes

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Roy H.; Pierce, S. Gareth; Collison, Ian; Dutton, Ben; Dziewierz, Jerzy; Jackson, Joseph; Lardner, Timothy; MacLeod, Charles; Morozov, Maxim

2015-03-01

Full matrix capture (FMC) ultrasound can be used to generate a permanent re-focusable record of data describing the geometry of a part; a valuable asset for an inspection process. FMC is a desirable acquisition mode for automated scanning of complex geometries, as it allows compensation for surface shape in post processing and application of the total focusing method. However, automating the delivery of such FMC inspection remains a significant challenge for real industrial processes due to the high data overhead associated with the ultrasonic acquisition. The benefits of NDE delivery using six-axis industrial robots are well versed when considering complex inspection geometries, but such an approach brings additional challenges to scanning speed and positional accuracy when combined with FMC inspection. This study outlines steps taken to optimize the scanning speed and data management of a process to scan the diffusion bonded membrane of a titanium test plate. A system combining a KUKA robotic arm and a reconfigurable FMC phased array controller is presented. The speed and data implications of different scanning methods are compared, and the impacts on data visualization quality are discussed with reference to this study. For the 0.5 m2 sample considered, typical acquisitions of 18 TB/m2 were measured for a triple back wall FMC acquisition, illustrating the challenge of combining high data throughput with acceptable scanning speeds.

The interactive on-site inspection system: An information management system to support arms control inspections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

DeLand, S.M.; Widney, T.W.; Horak, K.E.; Caudell, R.B.; Grose, E.M.

1996-12-01

The increasing use of on-site inspection (OSI) to meet the nation`s obligations with recently signed treaties requires the nation to manage a variety of inspection requirements. This document describes a prototype automated system to assist in the preparation and management of these inspections.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sa, Inkyu; Hrabar, Stefan; Corke, Peter

2015-09-02

This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors) have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS). Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations Sensors 2015, 15 22004 and indoor/outdoor (day and night) flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inkyu Sa

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS. Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations Sensors 2015, 15 22004 and indoor/outdoor (day and night flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole.

Inspection of Pole-Like Structures Using a Visual-Inertial Aided VTOL Platform with Shared Autonomy

Science.gov (United States)

Sa, Inkyu; Hrabar, Stefan; Corke, Peter

2015-01-01

This paper presents an algorithm and a system for vertical infrastructure inspection using a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle and shared autonomy. Inspecting vertical structures such as light and power distribution poles is a difficult task that is time-consuming, dangerous and expensive. Recently, micro VTOL platforms (i.e., quad-, hexa- and octa-rotors) have been rapidly gaining interest in research, military and even public domains. The unmanned, low-cost and VTOL properties of these platforms make them ideal for situations where inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and/or hazardous to humans. There are, however, challenges involved with developing such an inspection system, for example flying in close proximity to a target while maintaining a fixed stand-off distance from it, being immune to wind gusts and exchanging useful information with the remote user. To overcome these challenges, we require accurate and high-update rate state estimation and high performance controllers to be implemented onboard the vehicle. Ease of control and a live video feed are required for the human operator. We demonstrate a VTOL platform that can operate at close-quarters, whilst maintaining a safe stand-off distance and rejecting environmental disturbances. Two approaches are presented: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and estimator-free Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS). Both use monocular visual, inertia, and sonar data, allowing the approaches to be applied for indoor or GPS-impaired environments. We extensively compare the performances of PBVS and IBVS in terms of accuracy, robustness and computational costs. Results from simulations and indoor/outdoor (day and night) flight experiments demonstrate the system is able to successfully inspect and circumnavigate a vertical pole. PMID:26340631

Automated Comprehensive Evaluation of mTBI Visual Dysfunction

Science.gov (United States)

2017-04-01

of the NODe . Subtask 1: Statistical analysis of NODe data from controls and mTBI patients: COMPLETED Data Processing : Automated data analyses are...order visual processing dysfunctions on a large population of Warfighters with acute mTBI as compared to healthy age-matched controls . This study also... controls ) military personnel will be recruited from the patient population at Womack Army Medical Center (WAMC). The central hypothesis is that a NODe test

Clinical relevance of studies on the accuracy of visual inspection for detecting caries lesions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gimenez, Thais; Piovesan, Chaiana; Braga, Mariana M

2015-01-01

Although visual inspection is the most commonly used method for caries detection, and consequently the most investigated, studies have not been concerned about the clinical relevance of this procedure. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review in order to perform a critical evaluation considering...... the clinical relevance and methodological quality of studies on the accuracy of visual inspection for assessing caries lesions. Two independent reviewers searched several databases through July 2013 to identify papers/articles published in English. Other sources were checked to identify unpublished literature...... to clinical relevance and the methodological quality of the studies were evaluated. 96 of the 5,578 articles initially identified met the inclusion criteria. In general, most studies failed in considering some clinically relevant aspects: only 1 included study validated activity status of lesions, no study...

Is magnification necessary to confirm visual inspection of cervical abnormalities? A randomized trial in Peru

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer L. Winkler

2008-01-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in developing countries. This study was designed to evaluate whether visual inspection with acetic acid and magnification (VIAM improved confirmation of cervical lesions as compared to confirmation with visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA without magnification when used by physicians. METHODS: From April-December 2004, women in San Martin, Peru, who were referred as VIA-positive by an "obstetriz" (a professional midwife with 6 years of university training were randomized into two groups for confirmatory screening by a physician using either VIA or VIAM with an AviScope,TM a hand-held 4x magnification scope with a green light source. The reference standard for the presence or absence of cervical neoplasia was colposcopy and directed biopsy, as required. RESULTS: A total of 358 women participated in the study; 161 had a confirmatory examination with VIAM and 159 with VIA. Sensitivity for low- or high-grade lesions was 68% with VIA and 77% with VIAM, and specificity was 62% with VIA and 63% with VIAM; however, these differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: For settings where physician confirmation of cervical abnormalities identified through visual inspection is required and available, this study demonstrates that VIAM had no significant advantage over VIA.

Application of 4-Face Fuel Visual Inspection System during Outage in Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, J. C.; Kim, J. I.; Choi, C. B.; Kim, Y. C.; Kang, C. B.

2008-01-01

Recently, as a measure to reduce an outage duration in nuclear power plants (NPPs), a four-face fuel visual inspection system (4-FFVIS) built in 4 cameras was introduced by Ahlberg Electronics, Sweden. The 4- FFVIS is used to inspect the external appearance of irradiated fuel assemblies in order to confirm their integrity against mechanical defects and foreign materials. Until now, however, a typical one-face fuel inspection system(1-FFVIS) has been world-widely utilized in NPPs. The 1-FFVIS requires four turns with 90 degree to inspect every face of the fuel assembly, causing a relatively long inspecting time. But the 4- FFVIS allow us to inspect every face of the fuel assembly at the same time. The inspection time with the 4-FFVIS may be less than two minutes per fuel assembly, whereas that with the 1-FFVIS is about six minutes per fuel assembly. In viewpoint of this merit, the 4-FFVIS is expected to be world-widely used in the near future. In this paper, the technical requirements necessary to develop the 4-FFVIS as well as some improvements to complement the current 4-FFVIS are described

Visual detection of defects in solder joints

Science.gov (United States)

Blaignan, V. B.; Bourbakis, Nikolaos G.; Moghaddamzadeh, Ali; Yfantis, Evangelos A.

1995-03-01

The automatic, real-time visual acquisition and inspection of VLSI boards requires the use of machine vision and artificial intelligence methodologies in a new `frame' for the achievement of better results regarding efficiency, products quality and automated service. In this paper the visual detection and classification of different types of defects on solder joints in PC boards is presented by combining several image processing methods, such as smoothing, segmentation, edge detection, contour extraction and shape analysis. The results of this paper are based on simulated solder defects and a real one.

Gentilly 2 steam generators Spring 2000 outage: tubesheet waterlance cleaning and inspection; upper bundle inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akeroyd, J.K.; Plante, S.

2000-01-01

A review of the secondary side maintenance activities recently completed during the Gentilly 2 Annual Spring 2000 Maintenance Outage. Activities included: 1) Tubesheet intertube waterlance cleaning and visual inspection, 2) First tube support plate, in-bundle visual inspection of the hot leg, and 3) Upper bundle tube support plate visual inspection. A description of the waterlancing and inspection equipment and setup in the RB at Gentilly 2 is provided. Several innovative techniques were successfully employed and yielded savings in critical path duration, labour and personnel radiation dose. These included accessing the SG tubesheet region through one handhole only and sludge removal utilizing the SG blowdown system. Plant personnel judged tubesheet sludge removal successful. Before and after results of the cleaning process along with samples of the visual inspection results are provided. Inspection of the first support plate, which was a repeat of an inspection done in 1997, was conducted along with an in-bundle inspection of the upper tube supports. Results are presented along with a discussion of the implications for future steam generator maintenance. (author)

26 CFR 48.4082-3 - Diesel fuel and kerosene; visual inspection devices. [Reserved

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 16 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Diesel fuel and kerosene; visual inspection... THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS EXCISE TAXES MANUFACTURERS AND RETAILERS EXCISE TAXES Motor Vehicles, Tires, Tubes, Tread Rubber, and Taxable Fuel Taxable Fuel § 48.4082-3 Diesel fuel and kerosene...

Photogrammetric approach to automated checking of DTMs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Potucková, Marketa

2005-01-01

Geometrically accurate digital terrain models (DTMs) are essential for orthoimage production and many other applications. Collecting reference data or visual inspection are reliable but time consuming and therefore expensive methods for finding errors in DTMs. In this paper, a photogrammetric...... approach to automated checking and improving of DTMs is evaluated. Corresponding points in two overlapping orthoimages are found by means of area based matching. Provided the image orientation is correct, discovered displacements correspond to DTM errors. Improvements of the method regarding its...

An automated paradigm for Drosophila visual psychophysics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver Evans

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Mutations that cause learning and memory defects in Drosophila melanogaster have been found to also compromise visual responsiveness and attention. A better understanding of attention-like defects in such Drosophila mutants therefore requires a more detailed characterization of visual responsiveness across a range of visual parameters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We designed an automated behavioral paradigm for efficiently dissecting visual responsiveness in Drosophila. Populations of flies walk through multiplexed serial choice mazes while being exposed to moving visuals displayed on computer monitors, and infra-red fly counters at the end of each maze automatically score the responsiveness of a strain. To test our new design, we performed a detailed comparison between wild-type flies and a learning and memory mutant, dunce(1. We first confirmed that the learning mutant dunce(1 displays increased responsiveness to a black/green moving grating compared to wild type in this new design. We then extended this result to explore responses to a wide range of psychophysical parameters for moving gratings (e.g., luminosity, contrast, spatial frequency, velocity as well as to a different stimulus, moving dots. Finally, we combined these visuals (gratings versus dots in competition to investigate how dunce(1 and wild-type flies respond to more complex and conflicting motion effects. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We found that dunce(1 responds more strongly than wild type to high contrast and highly structured motion. This effect was found for simple gratings, dots, and combinations of both stimuli presented in competition.

Training for cervical cancer prevention programs in low-resource settings: focus on visual inspection with acetic acid and cryotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Blumenthal, P D; Lauterbach, M; Sellors, J W; Sankaranarayanan, R

2005-05-01

The modern approach to cervical cancer prevention, characterized by use of cytology and multiple visits for diagnosis and treatment, has frequently proven challenging and unworkable in low-resource settings. Because of this, the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) has made it a priority to investigate and assess alternative approaches, particularly the use of visual screening methods, such as visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and visual inspection with Lugol's iodine (VILI), for precancer and cancer detection and the use of cryotherapy as a precancer treatment method. As a result of ACCP experience in providing training to nurses and doctors in these techniques, it is now widely agreed that training should be competency based, combining both didactic and hands-on approaches, and should be done in a clinical setting that resembles the service-delivery conditions at the program site. This article reviews ACCP experiences and perceptions about the essentials of training in visual inspection and cryotherapy and presents some lessons learned with regard to training in these techniques in low-resource settings.

Operation of inspection data acquisition and evaluation system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takahashi, Yoichi; Harada, Hiroshi; Watanabe, Masayuki; Sakaguchi, Makoto; Ishikawa, Masayuki

2016-01-01

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP) is a large scale plant to treat a huge amount of Plutonium significant for safeguards. The LArge SCAle Reprocessing plant safeguards (LASCAR) Forum recommended an effective utilization of unattended verification systems and automated data acquisition system etc. Based on LASCAR recommendation, Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC) has developed the inspection data acquisition system as the automated data acquisition system from the unattended verification systems (including non-destructive assay equipment, solution monitoring system and surveillance camera). The data gathered from the unattended verification system are provided to the inspection data evaluation system for the State and the IAEA. In this development, redundancy concepts for data transfer line, in order to prevent inspection data missing, were introduced, and the timely confirmation of solution behaver such as material flows and inventories by the solution monitoring can be achieved. Furthermore, for purpose of efficiency of evaluation of inspection activity for the State, NMCC has developed the inspection data evaluation system which operates automated partition of inspection data coming from each verification equipment. Additionally, the inspection data system evaluation can manage the inspection activities and their efforts. These development and operation have been funded by JSGO (Japan Safeguards Office). This paper describes development history and operation of the inspection data acquisition and evaluation system. (author)

Computers, Automation, and the Employment of Persons Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired.

Science.gov (United States)

Mather, J.

1994-01-01

This article discusses the impact of technology on the formation of skills and the career advancement of persons who are blind or visually impaired. It concludes that dependence on technology (computerization and automation) and the mechanistic aspects of jobs may trap blind and visually impaired workers in occupations with narrow career paths…

Baxter elastomeric pumps: Weighing as an alternative to visual inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

Cusano, Ellen L; Ali, Raafi; Sawyer, Michael B; Chambers, Carole R; Tang, Patricia A

2018-04-01

Purpose Elastomeric pumps are used to administer 46-hour infusions of 5-fluorouracil (5FU). Baxter suggests patients visually monitor their pumps to ensure that infusions are proceeding correctly. This can be confusing and lead to concerns about under- or over-dosing. Baxter has not considered weighing pumps as a validated method for monitoring. This study aims to validate weighing as a more accurate method for patients and healthcare professionals, and describe real life Baxter Infusor™ variability. Methods Patients who had been started on a 46-hour 5FU infusion returned to the clinic approximately 24 h after starting treatment. The pump was weighed on a StarFrit kitchen scale, and date, time, and weights recorded. Patients were asked if they had a preference for weighing or visually inspecting their pump. Results Pumps ( n = 103) were weighed between 17.25 and 27.5 h after connection. The average weight of a pump was 189 g. Of 103 pumps weighed, 99 weighed less than expected, corresponding to average flow rates of 5.69 mL/h over the elapsed time. The expected flow rate is 5 mL/h with 10% variability. Average flow rates within the 17.25- to 27.5-hour window were 4.561 mL/h, which is 8.78% slower than expected, but within the 10% known variability. Forty-seven percent of patients didn't have a preference for either method, but for those who did have a preference, more than twice as many preferred weighing. Conclusion With proper education, weighing Baxter Infusors at home with kitchen scales can be an accepted and objective alternative to the current recommendation of visual inspection.

Development of ultrasonic inspection technique for crack detection in retaining rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brook, M.V.

1990-01-01

The majority of retaining rings which are currently in service, are composed of a material which is susceptible to stress corrosion when exposed to moisture. Due to the inherent stress levels in the shrunk-on areas, they are particularly susceptible to stress corrosion attack. Therefore, retaining rings require non-destructive examination to avert catastrophic failure. Guidelines for retaining ring inspection issued by EPRI recommend ultrasonic manual and automated methods of inspection for rings in place. Application of the conventional manual method, using S-waves is difficult, and yields unreliable results. Due to the unreliability factor, utilities have been forced to depend upon surface examination methods, such as visual and penetrant techniques. In most instances, a surface exam will necessitate the costly and potentially damaging removal of the rings from the rotor to provide full access to areas of interest. Due to the various complexities of conventional ultrasonic retaining ring inspections, it is essential that the front end ultrasonics (i.e., transducers and techniques) be optimized to produce the best possible examination. For this reason, AMDATA has developed custom transducers and techniques to enhance automated detection capability of flaws in the various suspect areas of retaining rings. When the optimized techniques are applied to generate the best possible raw data, the Intraspect /98 trademark is then used to reliably apply technique, acquire the data and perform post processing evaluations. One of the most promising ultrasonic techniques for retaining ring inspection is creeping waves. This paper investigates the use of creeping waves for retaining ring inspection

Structural assessment of roof decking using visual inspection methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giller, R.A.; McCoy, R.M.; Wagenblast, G.R.

1993-01-01

The Hanford Site has approximately 1,100 buildings, some of which date back to the early 1940s. The roof on these buildings provides a weather resisting cover as well as the load resisting structure. Past experience has been that these roof structures may have structural modifications, the weather resisting membrane may have been replaced several times, and the members may experience some type of material degradation. This material degradation has progressed to cause the collapse of some roof deck members. The intent of the Hanford Site Central Engineering roof assessment effort is to provide an expedient structural assessment of the large number of buildings at the Hanford Site. This assessment is made by qualified structural inspectors following the open-quotes Preliminary Assessmentclose quotes procedures given in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standard ASCE 11-90. This roof assessment effort does not provide a total qualification of the roof for the design or in-place loads. This inspection does provide a reasonable estimate of the roof loading capacity to determine if personnel access restrictions are needed. A document search and a visual walkdown inspection provide the initial screening to identify modifications and components having questionable structural integrity. The structural assessment consists of baseline dead and live load stress calculations of all roofing components based on original design material strengths. The results of these assessments are documented in a final report which is retrievable in a form that future inspections will have comparative information

Structural assessment of roof decking using visual inspection methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giller, R.A.; McCoy, R.M.; Wagenblast, G.R.

1993-10-01

The Hanford Site has approximately 1,100 buildings, some of which date back to the early 1940s. The roof on these buildings provides a weather resisting cover as well as the load resisting structure. Past experience has been that these roof structures may have structural modifications, the weather resisting membrane may have been replaced several times, and the members may experience some type of material degradation. This material degradation has progressed to cause the collapse of some roof deck members. The intent of the Hanford Site Central Engineering roof assessment effort is to provide an expedient structural assessment of the large number of buildings at the Hanford Site. This assessment is made by qualified structural inspectors following the open-quotes Preliminary Assessment close-quote procedures given in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standard ASCE 11-90. This roof assessment effort does not provide a total qualification of the roof for the design or in-place loads. This inspection does provide a reasonable estimate of the roof loading capacity to determine if personnel access restrictions are needed. A document search and a visual walkdown inspection provide the initial screening to identify modifications and components having questionable structural integrity. The structural assessment consists of baseline dead and live load stress calculations of all roofing components based on original design material strengths. The results of these assessments are documented in a final report which is retrievable form that future inspections will have comparative information

Using artificial intelligence strategies for process-related automated inspection in the production environment

Science.gov (United States)

Anding, K.; Kuritcyn, P.; Garten, D.

2016-11-01

In this paper a new method for the automatic visual inspection of metallic surfaces is proposed by using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The different combinations of network parameters were developed and tested. The obtained results of CNN were analysed and compared with the results of our previous investigations with color and texture features as input parameters for a Support Vector Machine. Advantages and disadvantages of the different classifying methods are explained.

Visual inspection. Better than your eyes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakobs, N.; Baumgartl, R.

2005-01-01

Ongoing improvements in the development of camera technologies and manipulator techniques permit an enhanced performance of inspection tasks in nuclear services. In areas of reduced dose rate it's possible to use small size high resolution CCD cameras instead of tube cameras. Underwater inspections may be performed by submarine instead of rigid manipulator systems. This allows the enlargement of inspection areas and the performance at reduced time and personnel dose rate. (author)

Intelligent control and automation technology for nuclear application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jae Hee; Eom, Heung Sub; Kim, Ko Ryu; Lee, Jae Cheol; Choi, You Rak; Lee, Soo Cheol

1996-06-01

Using recent technologies on a mobile robot and computer science, we developed an automatic inspection system for weld lines of the reactor pressure vessel. The ultrasonic inspection of the reactor pressure vessel is currently performed by commercialized robot manipulators. Since, however, the conventional fixed type robot manipulator is very huge, heavy and expensive, it needs long inspection time and is hard to handle and maintain. In order to resolve these problems, we developed a new inspection automation system using a small mobile robot crawling on the vertical wall. According to the conceptual design studied in the first year, we developed the inspection automation system including an underwater inspection robot, a laser position control subsystem and a main control subsystem. And we carried out underwater experiments on the reactor vessel mockup. After finishing this project successfully, we have a plan to commercialize our inspection system. Using this system, we can expect much reduction of the inspection time, performance enhancement, automatic management of inspection history, etc. In the economic point of view, we can also expect import substitution more than 5 million dollars. The established essential technologies for intelligent control and automation are expected to be synthetically applied to the automation of similar systems in nuclear power plants. 4 tabs., 37 figs., 6 refs. (Author)

Survey and comparison of automated UT systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neeley, V.I.; Avioli, M.J.

1988-01-01

In the past decade, the limitations of manual UT inspections have become more severe and adverse. Perhaps the best evidence of this has been the problem of intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) in boiling water reactors (BWR). The onset of this problem clearly showed that better and more sophisticated UT inspection methods must be developed to assure the industry that an appropriate level of inspection integrity could be maintained. While automated UT inspection systems have been under development for some time, this event certainly spurred this activity and has resulted in a variety of commercial systems. The intent of this project, sponsored by EPRI, is to develop a utility engineer's 'Buyer guide' to automated UT systems. Comparison of different automated UT systems along with results of questionnaires on manual UT versus automated UT costs and effectiveness are reviewed. (author)

Advanced automation for in-space vehicle processing

Science.gov (United States)

Sklar, Michael; Wegerif, D.

1990-01-01

The primary objective of this 3-year planned study is to assure that the fully evolved Space Station Freedom (SSF) can support automated processing of exploratory mission vehicles. Current study assessments show that required extravehicular activity (EVA) and to some extent intravehicular activity (IVA) manpower requirements for required processing tasks far exceeds the available manpower. Furthermore, many processing tasks are either hazardous operations or they exceed EVA capability. Thus, automation is essential for SSF transportation node functionality. Here, advanced automation represents the replacement of human performed tasks beyond the planned baseline automated tasks. Both physical tasks such as manipulation, assembly and actuation, and cognitive tasks such as visual inspection, monitoring and diagnosis, and task planning are considered. During this first year of activity both the Phobos/Gateway Mars Expedition and Lunar Evolution missions proposed by the Office of Exploration have been evaluated. A methodology for choosing optimal tasks to be automated has been developed. Processing tasks for both missions have been ranked on the basis of automation potential. The underlying concept in evaluating and describing processing tasks has been the use of a common set of 'Primitive' task descriptions. Primitive or standard tasks have been developed both for manual or crew processing and automated machine processing.

AutoBD: Automated Bi-Level Description for Scalable Fine-Grained Visual Categorization.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Hantao; Zhang, Shiliang; Yan, Chenggang; Zhang, Yongdong; Li, Jintao; Tian, Qi

Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic. However, most of them are heavily dependent on the artificial annotations, e.g., bounding boxes, part annotations, and so on . The requirement of artificial annotations largely hinders the scalability and application. Motivated to release such dependence, this paper proposes a robust and discriminative visual description named Automated Bi-level Description (AutoBD). "Bi-level" denotes two complementary part-level and object-level visual descriptions, respectively. AutoBD is "automated," because it only requires the image-level labels of training images and does not need any annotations for testing images. Compared with the part annotations labeled by the human, the image-level labels can be easily acquired, which thus makes AutoBD suitable for large-scale visual categorization. Specifically, the part-level description is extracted by identifying the local region saliently representing the visual distinctiveness. The object-level description is extracted from object bounding boxes generated with a co-localization algorithm. Although only using the image-level labels, AutoBD outperforms the recent studies on two public benchmark, i.e. , classification accuracy achieves 81.6% on CUB-200-2011 and 88.9% on Car-196, respectively. On the large-scale Birdsnap data set, AutoBD achieves the accuracy of 68%, which is currently the best performance to the best of our knowledge.Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic

49 CFR 213.365 - Visual inspections.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... initiate remedial action. (e) Each switch, turnout, track crossing, and lift rail assemblies on moveable bridges shall be inspected on foot at least weekly. The inspection shall be accomplished in accordance...

Decon2LS: An open-source software package for automated processing and visualization of high resolution mass spectrometry data.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaitly, Navdeep; Mayampurath, Anoop; Littlefield, Kyle; Adkins, Joshua N; Anderson, Gordon A; Smith, Richard D

2009-03-17

Data generated from liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based studies of a biological sample can contain large amounts of biologically significant information in the form of proteins, peptides, and metabolites. Interpreting this data involves inferring the masses and abundances of biomolecules injected into the instrument. Because of the inherent complexity of mass spectral patterns produced by these biomolecules, the analysis is significantly enhanced by using visualization capabilities to inspect and confirm results. In this paper we describe Decon2LS, an open-source software package for automated processing and visualization of high-resolution MS data. Drawing extensively on algorithms developed over the last ten years for ICR2LS, Decon2LS packages the algorithms as a rich set of modular, reusable processing classes for performing diverse functions such as reading raw data, routine peak finding, theoretical isotope distribution modelling, and deisotoping. Because the source code is openly available, these functionalities can now be used to build derivative applications in relatively fast manner. In addition, Decon2LS provides an extensive set of visualization tools, such as high performance chart controls. With a variety of options that include peak processing, deisotoping, isotope composition, etc, Decon2LS supports processing of multiple raw data formats. Deisotoping can be performed on an individual scan, an individual dataset, or on multiple datasets using batch processing. Other processing options include creating a two dimensional view of mass and liquid chromatography (LC) elution time features, generating spectrum files for tandem MS data, creating total intensity chromatograms, and visualizing theoretical peptide profiles. Application of Decon2LS to deisotope different datasets obtained across different instruments yielded a high number of features that can be used to identify and quantify peptides in the

Sigma: computer vision in the service of safety and reliability in the inspection services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pineiro, P. J.; Mendez, M.; Garcia, A.; Cabrera, E.; Regidor, J. J.

2012-01-01

Vision Computing is growing very fast in the last decade with very efficient tools and algorithms. This allows new development of applications in the nuclear field providing more efficient equipment and tasks: redundant systems, vision-guided mobile robots, automated visual defects recognition, measurement, etc., In this paper Tecnatom describes a detailed example of visual computing application developed to provide secure redundant identification of the thousands of tubes existing in a power plant steam generator. some other on-going or planned visual computing projects by Tecnatom are also introduced. New possibilities of application in the inspection systems for nuclear components appear where the main objective is to maximize their reliability. (Author) 6 refs.

The effects of inspecting and constructing part-task-specific visualizations on team and individual learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slof, Bert; Erkens, Gijsbert; Kirschner, Paul A.; Helms-Lorenz, Michelle

This study examined whether inspecting and constructing different part-task-specific visualizations differentially affects learning. To this end, a complex business-economics problem was structured into three phase-related part-tasks: (1) determining core concepts, (2) proposing multiple solutions,

Applying Dataflow Architecture and Visualization Tools to In Vitro Pharmacology Data Automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pechter, David; Xu, Serena; Kurtz, Marc; Williams, Steven; Sonatore, Lisa; Villafania, Artjohn; Agrawal, Sony

2016-12-01

The pace and complexity of modern drug discovery places ever-increasing demands on scientists for data analysis and interpretation. Data flow programming and modern visualization tools address these demands directly. Three different requirements-one for allosteric modulator analysis, one for a specialized clotting analysis, and one for enzyme global progress curve analysis-are reviewed, and their execution in a combined data flow/visualization environment is outlined. © 2016 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Development and operational experiences of an automated remote inspection system for interior of primary containment vessel of a BWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozaki, N.; Chikara, S.; Fumio, T.; Katsuhiro, M.; Katsutoshi, S.; Ken-Ichiro, S.; Masaaki, F.; Masayoshi, S.

1983-01-01

A prototype was developed for an automated remote inspection system featuring continuous monitoring of the working status of major components inside the primary containment vessel of a boiling water reactor. This inspection system consists of four units, or vehicles, which are towed by a trolley chain along a monorail; a complex coaxial cable for data transmission and for power supply; and an operator's console. A TV camera, microphone, thermometer, hygrometer, and ionization chamber are mounted on the various units. After several months' testing under high-ambient temperature, the system was installed in the Tokai-2 power station of Japan Atomic Power Company for in situ tests

CoverageAnalyzer (CAn: A Tool for Inspection of Modification Signatures in RNA Sequencing Profiles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralf Hauenschild

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Combination of reverse transcription (RT and deep sequencing has emerged as a powerful instrument for the detection of RNA modifications, a field that has seen a recent surge in activity because of its importance in gene regulation. Recent studies yielded high-resolution RT signatures of modified ribonucleotides relying on both sequence-dependent mismatch patterns and reverse transcription arrests. Common alignment viewers lack specialized functionality, such as filtering, tailored visualization, image export and differential analysis. Consequently, the community will profit from a platform seamlessly connecting detailed visual inspection of RT signatures and automated screening for modification candidates. CoverageAnalyzer (CAn was developed in response to the demand for a powerful inspection tool. It is freely available for all three main operating systems. With SAM file format as standard input, CAn is an intuitive and user-friendly tool that is generally applicable to the large community of biomedical users, starting from simple visualization of RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq data, up to sophisticated modification analysis with significance-based modification candidate calling.

Technical regulation of nondestructive inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

It starts with the explanation of definition of nondestructive inspection and qualifications for a inspection. It lists the technical regulations of nondestructive inspections which are radiographic testing, ultrasonic flaw detecting test, liquid penetrant test, magnetic particle inspection, eddy current test visual inspection and leakage test.

Comparison of Automated 4D-MSPECT and Visual Analysis for Evaluating Myocardial Perfusion in Coronary Artery Disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chien-Chin Hsu

2008-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to assess the reproducibility and diagnostic performance for coronary artery disease (CAD of an automated software package, 4D-MSPECT, and compare the results with a visual approach. We enrolled 60 patients without previously known CAD, who underwent dual-isotope rest Tl-201/stress Tc-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging and subsequent coronary angiography within 3 months. The automated summed stress score (A-SSS, summed rest score (A-SRS and summed difference score (A-SDS were obtained using a 17-segment five-point scale model with 4D-MSPECT. For intraobserver and interobserver variability assessment, automated scoring was done by a nuclear medicine physician twice and by a nuclear medicine technologist. The visual summed stress score (V-SSS, summed rest score (V-SRS, and summed difference score (V-SDS were obtained by consensus of two nuclear medicine physicians. The intraobserver and interobserver agreements of automated segmental scores were excellent. The intraobserver and interobserver summed scores also correlated well. Agreements between visual and automated segmental scores were moderate (weighted κ of 0.55 and 0.50 for stress and rest images, respectively. Correlations between automated and visual summed scores were high, with correlation coefficients of 0.89, 0.85 and 0.82 for SSS, SRS and SDS, respectively (all p < 0.001. The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve for diagnosis of CAD by V-SSS, V-SDS, A-SSS and A-SDS were 0.78 ± 0.06, 0.87 ± 0.05, 0.84 ± 0.05 and 0.90 ± 0.04, respectively. A-SDS had better diagnostic performance than A-SSS and V-SSS (p = 0.043 and p = 0.032, respectively, whereas there was no statistically significant difference between A-SDS and V-SDS (p = 0.56. Using V-SDS ≥ 2 as a diagnostic threshold, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for CAD were 83.7%, 76.5% and 81.7%, respectively. Using A-SDS ≥ 3 as a diagnostic threshold, the sensitivity

The Ontario hydro low pressure turbine disc inspection program automated ultrasonic inspection systems - an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huggins, J.W.; Chopcian, M.; Grabish, M.

1990-01-01

An overview of the Ontario Hydro Low Pressure Turbine Disc Inspection Program is presented. The ultrasonic inspection systems developed in-house to inspect low pressure turbine discs at Pickering and Bruce Nuclear Generating stations are described. Three aspects of the program are covered: PART I - Background to inspection program, disc cracking experience, and development of an in-house inspection capability: PART II - System development requirements; ultrasonic equipment, electromechanical subsystems and instrumentation console: PART III - Customized software for flaw detection, sizing, data acquisition/storage, advanced signal processing, reports, documentation and software based diagnostics

Apparatus for assembling and welding end plugs to nuclear fuel cladding tubes and inspecting the end plug welds on an automated basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schoenig, F.C. Jr.; Walker, E.S.; Cueman, M.K.; Haughton, R.A.; Zuloaga, J.A. Jr.

1989-01-01

This patent describes an automated apparatus for welding a separate end plug to one open end of each of a succession of nuclear fuel cladding tubes and for inspecting each end plug weld. The apparatus comprising, in combination: a welding station; a cooldown station for cooling each end plug weld in an inert gas atmosphere; a serial number reader station for reading a serial number on each end plug; a first weld inspection station; a second weld inspection station for generating second weld inspection data; a computer system linked with the serial number reader and the first and second weld inspection stations; an input queue for holding a plurality of tubes; a tube transporter for periodically picking individual tubes from the input queque and conveying the tubes in a direction transverse to their tube axis in indexing steps to index positions respectively axially aligned with the welding, serial number reader, and first and second weld inspection stations; and a sorter positioned at an output end of the tube transporter

Simulation Design for Off-Line Training of Practical Lean Manufacturing Concepts for Visual Inspection

Science.gov (United States)

Tetteh, Edem; McWilliams, Douglas

2010-01-01

Customer needs for high-quality goods and the risk of product-liability litigation against businesses have made companies look for a way to sustain quality assurance in their products and services. Lean manufacturing is the latest and most successful system being used by companies to turn their business around. Visual inspection plays an important…

Combined factors effect of menstrual cycle and background noise on visual inspection task performance: a simulation-based task.

Science.gov (United States)

Wijayanto, Titis; Tochihara, Yutaka; Wijaya, Andi R; Hermawati, Setia

2009-11-01

It is well known that women are physiologically and psychologically influenced by the menstrual cycle. In addition, the presence of background noise may affect task performance. So far, it has proven difficult to describe how the menstrual cycle and background noise affect task performance; some researchers have found an increment of performance during menstruation or during the presence of noise, others found performance deterioration, while other still have reported no dominant effect either of the menstrual cycle in performance or of the presence of noise. However, no study to date has investigated the combinational effect between the menstrual cycle and the presence of background noise in task performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the combined factor effect of menstrual cycle and background noise on visual inspection task performance indices by Signal Detection Theory (SDT) metrics: sensitivity index (d') and response criteria index (beta). For this purpose, ten healthy female students (21.5+/-1.08 years) with a regular menstrual cycle participated in this study. A VDT-based visual inspection task was used for the experiment in 3x2 factorial designs. Two factors, menstrual phase, pre-menstruation (PMS), menstruation (M), and post-menstruation (PM) and background noise, with 80 dB(A) background noise and without noise, were analyzed as the main factors in this study. The results concluded that the sensitivity index (d') of SDT was affected in all the menstrual cycle conditions (pbackground noise (pbackground noise was found in this study. On the other hand, no significant effect was observed in the subject's tendency in visual inspection, shown by beta along the menstrual cycle and the presence of background noise. According to the response criteria for each individual subject, the presence of noise affected the tendency of some subjects in detecting the object and making decision during the visual inspection task.

Automated Inspection of Defects in Optical Fiber Connector End Face Using Novel Morphology Approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Mei, Shuang; Wang, Yudan; Wen, Guojun; Hu, Yang

2018-05-03

Increasing deployment of optical fiber networks and the need for reliable high bandwidth make the task of inspecting optical fiber connector end faces a crucial process that must not be neglected. Traditional end face inspections are usually performed by manual visual methods, which are low in efficiency and poor in precision for long-term industrial applications. More seriously, the inspection results cannot be quantified for subsequent analysis. Aiming at the characteristics of typical defects in the inspection process for optical fiber end faces, we propose a novel method, “difference of min-max ranking filtering” (DO2MR), for detection of region-based defects, e.g., dirt, oil, contamination, pits, and chips, and a special model, a “linear enhancement inspector” (LEI), for the detection of scratches. The DO2MR is a morphology method that intends to determine whether a pixel belongs to a defective region by comparing the difference of gray values of pixels in the neighborhood around the pixel. The LEI is also a morphology method that is designed to search for scratches at different orientations with a special linear detector. These two approaches can be easily integrated into optical inspection equipment for automatic quality verification. As far as we know, this is the first time that complete defect detection methods for optical fiber end faces are available in the literature. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed DO2MR and LEI models yield good comprehensive performance with high precision and accepted recall rates, and the image-level detection accuracies reach 96.0 and 89.3%, respectively.

Automated Inspection of Defects in Optical Fiber Connector End Face Using Novel Morphology Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuang Mei

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Increasing deployment of optical fiber networks and the need for reliable high bandwidth make the task of inspecting optical fiber connector end faces a crucial process that must not be neglected. Traditional end face inspections are usually performed by manual visual methods, which are low in efficiency and poor in precision for long-term industrial applications. More seriously, the inspection results cannot be quantified for subsequent analysis. Aiming at the characteristics of typical defects in the inspection process for optical fiber end faces, we propose a novel method, “difference of min-max ranking filtering” (DO2MR, for detection of region-based defects, e.g., dirt, oil, contamination, pits, and chips, and a special model, a “linear enhancement inspector” (LEI, for the detection of scratches. The DO2MR is a morphology method that intends to determine whether a pixel belongs to a defective region by comparing the difference of gray values of pixels in the neighborhood around the pixel. The LEI is also a morphology method that is designed to search for scratches at different orientations with a special linear detector. These two approaches can be easily integrated into optical inspection equipment for automatic quality verification. As far as we know, this is the first time that complete defect detection methods for optical fiber end faces are available in the literature. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed DO2MR and LEI models yield good comprehensive performance with high precision and accepted recall rates, and the image-level detection accuracies reach 96.0 and 89.3%, respectively.

An Automated Sensing System for Steel Bridge Inspection Using GMR Sensor Array and Magnetic Wheels of Climbing Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui Wang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Corrosion is one of the main causes of deterioration of steel bridges. It may cause metal loss and fatigue cracks in the steel components, which would lead to the collapse of steel bridges. This paper presents an automated sensing system to detect corrosion, crack, and other kinds of defects using a GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance sensor array. Defects will change the relative permeability and electrical conductivity of the material. As a result, magnetic field density generated by ferromagnetic material and the magnetic wheels will be changed. The defects are able to be detected by using GMR sensor array to measure the changes of magnetic flux density. In this study, magnetic wheels are used not only as the adhesion device of the robot, but also as an excitation source to provide the exciting magnetic field for the sensing system. Furthermore, compared to the eddy current method and the MFL (magnetic flux leakage method, this sensing system suppresses the noise from lift-off value fluctuation by measuring the vertical component of induced magnetic field that is perpendicular to the surface of the specimen in the corrosion inspection. Simulations and experimental results validated the feasibility of the system for the automated defect inspection.

A Generic Deep-Learning-Based Approach for Automated Surface Inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Ruoxu; Hung, Terence; Tan, Kay Chen

2018-03-01

Automated surface inspection (ASI) is a challenging task in industry, as collecting training dataset is usually costly and related methods are highly dataset-dependent. In this paper, a generic approach that requires small training data for ASI is proposed. First, this approach builds classifier on the features of image patches, where the features are transferred from a pretrained deep learning network. Next, pixel-wise prediction is obtained by convolving the trained classifier over input image. An experiment on three public and one industrial data set is carried out. The experiment involves two tasks: 1) image classification and 2) defect segmentation. The results of proposed algorithm are compared against several best benchmarks in literature. In the classification tasks, the proposed method improves accuracy by 0.66%-25.50%. In the segmentation tasks, the proposed method reduces error escape rates by 6.00%-19.00% in three defect types and improves accuracies by 2.29%-9.86% in all seven defect types. In addition, the proposed method achieves 0.0% error escape rate in the segmentation task of industrial data.

Automation of FBTR fuel pin inspection using FPGA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khare, K.M.; Pai, Siddhesh; Pant, Brijesh; Sendhil Raja, S.; Gupta, P.K.

2011-01-01

A non-contact metrology system for inspection of FBTR fuel pins has been developed. The system consists of a stepper motors driven mechanism for orientation and positioning of FBTR fuel pin, a telecentric imaging system, absolute linear encoder with 0.1 μm resolution and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPCA) based controller. The FBTR pin assembly is telecentrically illuminated from bottom by a red LED and its shadow graph is imaged using a CCD camera through telecentric imaging lens system. For system control and automation we have used a FPGA that has integrated soft picoblaze processor, X-θ axis motion controller, custom IPs for encoder data acquisition, synchronization circuit, RS485 interface along with other l/Os. Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a PC the system is initialized at home position and the controller provides the trigger signal for start of data acquisition of CCD camera. CCD image of pin and the corresponding X-θ information is captured. After the acquisition of one set of images, the imaging module is moved with a step size pre-programmed to ensure proper stitching of acquired images. The GUI is programmed to analyze these X-θ Images to calculate the required parameters of the fuel pin like the diameter variation, pitch and bow. The details of the instrument and measurements made with it will be presented. (author)

DEEP LEARNING AND IMAGE PROCESSING FOR AUTOMATED CRACK DETECTION AND DEFECT MEASUREMENT IN UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES

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F. Panella

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This work presents the combination of Deep-Learning (DL and image processing to produce an automated cracks recognition and defect measurement tool for civil structures. The authors focus on tunnel civil structures and survey and have developed an end to end tool for asset management of underground structures. In order to maintain the serviceability of tunnels, regular inspection is needed to assess their structural status. The traditional method of carrying out the survey is the visual inspection: simple, but slow and relatively expensive and the quality of the output depends on the ability and experience of the engineer as well as on the total workload (stress and tiredness may influence the ability to observe and record information. As a result of these issues, in the last decade there is the desire to automate the monitoring using new methods of inspection. The present paper has the goal of combining DL with traditional image processing to create a tool able to detect, locate and measure the structural defect.

An automated eddy current in-service inspection system for nuclear steam generator tubing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wells, N.S.

1981-06-01

A prototype steam generator in-service inspection system incorporating remotely-controlled instrumentation linked by a digital transmission line to an instrument and control trailer outside the reactor containment has been designed and manufactured and is presently undergoing field tests. The (Monel 400) steam generator tubes are scanned two at a time using absolute eddy current probes controlled by two remotely-operated probe drives at a scanning speed of 0.5 m/s. The probes are positioned on the tubesheet by a light-weight (1.5 kg) microprocessor-operated tubesheet walker mechanism. Digitized control and data signals are transmitted up to 300 m to the control trailer. There the control and analysis computers extract the relevant signal information and present it in condensed form as labelled graphics on CRT consoles for on-line visual assessment. Hard copy output is also provided for each tube scanned (one per minute). Condensed data is archived on magnetic tapes for additional off-line analysis and comparisons with other inspections

An automated system for rail transit infrastructure inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-03-01

This project applied commercial remote sensing and spatial information (CRS&SI) : technologies such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), laser, GIS, and GPS to passenger rail : inspections. An integrated rail inspection system that can be mounted on hi...

Changing lanes in a simulator: effects of aging on the control of the vehicle and visual inspection of mirrors and blind spot.

Science.gov (United States)

Lavalliere, Martin; Laurendeau, Denis; Simoneau, Martin; Teasdale, Normand

2011-04-01

The aim of this study was to examine lane change strategies in active younger and older drivers. Visual inspection of mirrors and the blind spot and the control of the vehicle were documented in a simulator environment. Younger (n = 10, 21-31 years) and older (n = 11, 65-75 years) active drivers drove through a continuous simulated environment including urban and rural sections. The scenario included events where, to negotiate a secure lane change, the driver needed to look at 3 regions of interest (ROI): (1) the rearview mirror, (2) the left side mirror, and (3) the left blind spot. The lane change maneuvers were necessary to avoid a vehicle parked halfway in the rightmost lane that was partially or completely blocking the lane or for overtaking a slower moving vehicle. Compared with younger drivers, older drivers showed a reduced frequency of visual inspection toward the rearview mirror and the blind spot. Also, though the older drivers showed a constant frequency of visual inspection across the 2 types of driving maneuvers, the younger drivers increased their frequency of inspection when overtaking a slower vehicle. Control of the car was mostly similar for both groups. A better knowledge of the drivers' visual search strategies when changing lanes could help in identifying suboptimal strategies at-risk of causing crashes and also serves to develop retraining programs.

Fuel visual inspection system of the RTMIII; Sistema de inspeccion visual de combustible del RTMIII

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delfin L, A.; Castaneda J, G.; Mazon R, R.; Aguilar H, F. [ININ, Km. 36.5 Carretera Mexico-Toluca, Ocoyoacac, 52245 Estado de Mexico (Mexico)]. e-mail: rmr@nuclear.inin.mx

2007-07-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through the RLA/04/18 project, Management of Irradiated Fuel in Research Reactors, it recommended among other that the participant countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Mexico), develop tools to assure the integrity of the nuclear fuels used in the research reactors. The TRIGA Mark lll reactor (RTMIII) of the ININ, designed and built a system of visual inspection, that it uses a high radiation camera and image digitalisation. The project considers safety conditions of the personnel that carried out the activities of visual inspection, for that which the tool dives in the pool of the RTMIII, being held by an end in the superior part of the aluminium liner of the Reactor like it is shown in the plane No. 1. The primordial unit of the system is the visual equipment that corresponds to a camera of the Hydro-Technologie (HYTEC) VSLT 410N mark, designed to work in atmospheres under the water and/or in places of high risk. The camera has an unit of motorized orientation of stainless steel that can be rotated unboundedly in both senses, with variable speed by means of a control lever from the control unit. Together to this orientation unit is found the camera head, the one which is contained in an unit of motorized inclination of stainless steel that can be rotated azimuthally up to 370 degrees in both senses. The operation conditions of the camera are the following ones, temperature: 0 to 50 C, dose speed: {<=} 50 rad/h, operation depth: {<=} 30 mts, humidity (control unit): {<=} 80%. From the control unit it is derived an external device plug-n-play TV-Usb Aver Media marks whose function is to decode the video signal sent by the control unit and to transmit it to the computer where the image is captured in picture or video that is analyzed later on with any software ad hoc, that in our case we use the Quantikov Image Analyzer program for Windows 98 of the Dr. Lucio C. M. Pinto from Brazil who participates in the RLA

Decon2LS: An open-source software package for automated processing and visualization of high resolution mass spectrometry data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anderson Gordon A

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Data generated from liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-MS-based studies of a biological sample can contain large amounts of biologically significant information in the form of proteins, peptides, and metabolites. Interpreting this data involves inferring the masses and abundances of biomolecules injected into the instrument. Because of the inherent complexity of mass spectral patterns produced by these biomolecules, the analysis is significantly enhanced by using visualization capabilities to inspect and confirm results. In this paper we describe Decon2LS, an open-source software package for automated processing and visualization of high-resolution MS data. Drawing extensively on algorithms developed over the last ten years for ICR2LS, Decon2LS packages the algorithms as a rich set of modular, reusable processing classes for performing diverse functions such as reading raw data, routine peak finding, theoretical isotope distribution modelling, and deisotoping. Because the source code is openly available, these functionalities can now be used to build derivative applications in relatively fast manner. In addition, Decon2LS provides an extensive set of visualization tools, such as high performance chart controls. Results With a variety of options that include peak processing, deisotoping, isotope composition, etc, Decon2LS supports processing of multiple raw data formats. Deisotoping can be performed on an individual scan, an individual dataset, or on multiple datasets using batch processing. Other processing options include creating a two dimensional view of mass and liquid chromatography (LC elution time features, generating spectrum files for tandem MS data, creating total intensity chromatograms, and visualizing theoretical peptide profiles. Application of Decon2LS to deisotope different datasets obtained across different instruments yielded a high number of features that can be used to

Increasing reticle inspection efficiency and reducing wafer print-checks using automated defect classification and simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Sung Jae; Lim, Sung Taek; Vacca, Anthony; Fiekowsky, Peter; Fiekowsky, Dan

2013-09-01

IC fabs inspect critical masks on a regular basis to ensure high wafer yields. These requalification inspections are costly for many reasons including the capital equipment, system maintenance, and labor costs. In addition, masks typically remain in the "requal" phase for extended, non-productive periods of time. The overall "requal" cycle time in which reticles remain non-productive is challenging to control. Shipping schedules can slip when wafer lots are put on hold until the master critical layer reticle is returned to production. Unfortunately, substituting backup critical layer reticles can significantly reduce an otherwise tightly controlled process window adversely affecting wafer yields. One major requal cycle time component is the disposition process of mask inspections containing hundreds of defects. Not only is precious non-productive time extended by reviewing hundreds of potentially yield-limiting detections, each additional classification increases the risk of manual review techniques accidentally passing real yield limiting defects. Even assuming all defects of interest are flagged by operators, how can any person's judgment be confident regarding lithographic impact of such defects? The time reticles spend away from scanners combined with potential yield loss due to lithographic uncertainty presents significant cycle time loss and increased production costs. Fortunately, a software program has been developed which automates defect classification with simulated printability measurement greatly reducing requal cycle time and improving overall disposition accuracy. This product, called ADAS (Auto Defect Analysis System), has been tested in both engineering and high-volume production environments with very successful results. In this paper, data is presented supporting significant reduction for costly wafer print checks, improved inspection area productivity, and minimized risk of misclassified yield limiting defects.

Development of an automatic reactor inspection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jae Hee; Eom, Heung Seop; Lee, Jae Cheol; Choi, Yoo Raek; Moon, Soon Seung

2002-02-01

Using recent technologies on a mobile robot computer science, we developed an automatic inspection system for weld lines of the reactor vessel. The ultrasonic inspection of the reactor pressure vessel is currently performed by commercialized robot manipulators. Since, however, the conventional fixed type robot manipulator is very huge, heavy and expensive, it needs long inspection time and is hard to handle and maintain. In order to resolve these problems, we developed a new automatic inspection system using a small mobile robot crawling on the vertical wall of the reactor vessel. According to our conceptual design, we developed the reactor inspection system including an underwater inspection robot, a laser position control subsystem, an ultrasonic data acquisition/analysis subsystem and a main control subsystem. We successfully carried out underwater experiments on the reactor vessel mockup, and real reactor ready for Ulchine nuclear power plant unit 6 at Dusan Heavy Industry in Korea. After this project, we have a plan to commercialize our inspection system. Using this system, we can expect much reduction of the inspection time, performance enhancement, automatic management of inspection history, etc. In the economic point of view, we can also expect import substitution more than 4 million dollars. The established essential technologies for intelligent control and automation are expected to be synthetically applied to the automation of similar systems in nuclear power plants

Inspection system performance test procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jensen, C.E.

1995-01-01

This procedure establishes requirements to administer a performance demonstration test. The test is to demonstrate that the double-shell tank inspection system (DSTIS) supplied by the contractor performs in accordance with the WHC-S-4108, Double-Shell Tank Ultrasonic Inspection Performance Specification, Rev. 2-A, January, 1995. The inspection system is intended to provide ultrasonic (UT) and visual data to determine integrity of the Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) site underground waste tanks. The robotic inspection system consists of the following major sub-systems (modules) and components: Mobile control center; Deployment module; Cable management assembly; Robot mechanism; Ultrasonic testing system; Visual testing system; Pneumatic system; Electrical system; and Control system

Screening for Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia (OSSN by Slit-lamp Assisted Visual Inspection (SAVI following a short course of mild topical steroid-test qualities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Katsekera

2014-08-01

Results: Total number of patients with conjunctival growths screened by visual inspection was 119, with median age of 42 years and a range of 18 to 90 years and gender ratio of 1:1.9 in favour of females. There was no significant age difference between confirmed OSSN patients and non-OSSN (pterygia and the p-value was 0.617. Sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection in diagnosing OSSN when compared to histology were 94.3% and 74.2% respectively, with a positive predictive value of 74.6%. Histology reports indicated that 24.5% of OSSN specimens seen actually arose from pterygia. Conclusions: Slit lamp assisted visual inspection (SAVI is an accurate method of clinically diagnosing OSSN and can be recommended for use in resource limited settings with hard to access histopathological services.

Risk based inspection experience from the European chemical- and petrochemical industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kristensen, Hans; Jeppesen, Leif; Larsen, Bjarne; Kim, Na Yon

2001-01-01

As an inspection vendor with 60 years of experience and with more than 25 years of experience as manufacturer of the Automated Ultrasonic NDT systems, the P-scan systems, FORCE Institute is continuously analysing the market for NDT. This is done to assure that both the equipment product line and the service mix provided by FORCE Institute are meeting the requirements from the industry today and in the future. The concept of Risk Based Inspection Programmes were adopted early by the offshore industry and has in the recent years been adopted by many other industries as a reliable and cost efficient way of maintaining a production facility. A Risk/Reliability Based Inspection Programme is a 'living organism' that constantly needs information if it shall be of any value and NDT information is only one type of information that is required. The NDT information required is normally related to corrosion/base material information and weld integrity information. NDT as an integrated part of a plants maintenance system is, in Europe, currently influenced by the following tendencies which all are related to 'Risk Based Inspection': · Increased use of Base-Line Inspections · Reduction in the use of repeated inspections(qualitative- instead of quantitative Inspections). · Inspection results are fed directly into the plant maintenance system. · Fitness-for-Purpose acceptance criteria instead of conventional acceptance criteria. As repeatability and accuracy is a key issue for the data, automated ultrasonic inspection is increasingly used as an alternative to manual ultrasonic inspection, but due to the physical size of most automated ultrasonic inspection systems the gain in productivity has not been as significant as the gain in repeatability and accuracy. In this paper some of FORCE Institute's practical experiences with examinations carried out in connection with Risk Based Inspection is used to illustrate the above described tendencies. Not only examples using automated

Considerations for design and use of container challenge sets for qualification and validation of visible particulate inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

Melchore, James A; Berdovich, Dan

2012-01-01

The major compendia require sterile injectable and ophthalmic drugs, to be prepared in a manner that is designed to exclude particulate matter. This requirement is satisfied by testing for subvisual particles in the laboratory and 100% inspection of all containers for the presence of visible particles. Inspection for visible particles is performed in the operations area using one of three methods. Manual inspection is based on human visual acuity, the ability of the inspector to discern between conforming and nonconforming containers, and the ability to remove nonconforming units. Semi-automated inspection is a variation of manual inspection, in which a roller conveyor handles and presents the containers to the human inspector. Fully automated inspection systems perform handling, inspection, and rejection of defective containers. All inspection methods must meet the compendial requirement for sterile drug product to be "essentially free" of visible particulates. Given the random occurrence of particles within the batch, visual detection of a particle in an individual container is probabilistic. The probability of detection for a specific particle is affected by many variables that include product attributes, container size and shape, particle composition and size, and inspection capability. The challenge set is a useful tool to assess the particle detection in a product, and it may also be used to evaluate detection of container/closure defects. While the importance of a well-designed challenge set is not always recognized or understood, it serves as the cornerstone for qualification and/or validation of all inspection methods. This article is intended to provide useful information for the design, composition, and use of container challenge sets for particulate inspection studies. Regulations require drug products intended for injection or ophthalmic use to be sterile and free of particles that could harm the patient. This requirement is meet by 100% inspection of

Visual Inspection for Breakage of Micro-milling Cutter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

WANG Lei

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In order to realize visual inspection for breakage of micro-milling cutter, a developed image acquisition method of the surface of a micro-milling cutter was constructed and a classification method based on multilayer neural network was proposed in this article. While the milling cutter was rotating at a constant speed, a camera was triggered by a rotary encoder to capture a series of images. And the developed image of milling cutter was created by image mosaic algorithms. The moment of regional feature as well as the gray feature of the tooth edge was extracted as the input vector of neural network. The feature vector includes moment of inertia, geometric central moment, three-dimensional invariants moment and the gray value of the projection on two principal axis directions of the tooth region. By designing a proper neural network, breakage defects can be detected 100 %. And the false discovery rate is 0.5 %.

Enhancement of submarine pressure hull steel ultrasonic inspection using imaging and artificial intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Hay, D. Robert; Brassard, Michel; Matthews, James R.; Garneau, Stephane; Morchat, Richard

1995-06-01

The convergence of a number of contemporary technologies with increasing demands for improvements in inspection capabilities in maritime applications has created new opportunities for ultrasonic inspection. An automated ultrasonic inspection and data collection system APHIUS (automated pressure hull intelligent ultrasonic system), incorporates hardware and software developments to meet specific requirements for the maritime vessels, in particular, submarines in the Canadian Navy. Housed within a hardened portable computer chassis, instrumentation for digital ultrasonic data acquisition and transducer position measurement provide new capabilities that meet more demanding requirements for inspection of the aging submarine fleet. Digital data acquisition enables a number of new important capabilites including archiving of the complete inspection session, interpretation assistance through imaging, and automated interpretation using artificial intelligence methods. With this new reliable inspection system, in conjunction with a complementary study of the significance of real defect type and location, comprehensive new criteria can be generated which will eliminate unnecessary defect removal. As a consequence, cost savings will be realized through shortened submarine refit schedules.

CHROMATOGATE: A TOOL FOR DETECTING BASE MIS-CALLS IN MULTIPLE SEQUENCE ALIGNMENTS BY SEMI-AUTOMATIC CHROMATOGRAM INSPECTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikolaos Alachiotis

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Automated DNA sequencers generate chromatograms that contain raw sequencing data. They also generate data that translates the chromatograms into molecular sequences of A, C, G, T, or N (undetermined characters. Since chromatogram translation programs frequently introduce errors, a manual inspection of the generated sequence data is required. As sequence numbers and lengths increase, visual inspection and manual correction of chromatograms and corresponding sequences on a per-peak and per-nucleotide basis becomes an error-prone, time-consuming, and tedious process. Here, we introduce ChromatoGate (CG, an open-source software that accelerates and partially automates the inspection of chromatograms and the detection of sequencing errors for bidirectional sequencing runs. To provide users full control over the error correction process, a fully automated error correction algorithm has not been implemented. Initially, the program scans a given multiple sequence alignment (MSA for potential sequencing errors, assuming that each polymorphic site in the alignment may be attributed to a sequencing error with a certain probability. The guided MSA assembly procedure in ChromatoGate detects chromatogram peaks of all characters in an alignment that lead to polymorphic sites, given a user-defined threshold. The threshold value represents the sensitivity of the sequencing error detection mechanism. After this pre-filtering, the user only needs to inspect a small number of peaks in every chromatogram to correct sequencing errors. Finally, we show that correcting sequencing errors is important, because population genetic and phylogenetic inferences can be misled by MSAs with uncorrected mis-calls. Our experiments indicate that estimates of population mutation rates can be affected two- to three-fold by uncorrected errors.

A comparison of visual and quantitative methods to identify interstitial lung abnormalities

OpenAIRE

Kliment, Corrine R.; Araki, Tetsuro; Doyle, Tracy J.; Gao, Wei; Dupuis, Jos?e; Latourelle, Jeanne C.; Zazueta, Oscar E.; Fernandez, Isis E.; Nishino, Mizuki; Okajima, Yuka; Ross, James C.; Est?par, Ra?l San Jos?; Diaz, Alejandro A.; Lederer, David J.; Schwartz, David A.

2015-01-01

Background: Evidence suggests that individuals with interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) on a chest computed tomogram (CT) may have an increased risk to develop a clinically significant interstitial lung disease (ILD). Although methods used to identify individuals with ILA on chest CT have included both automated quantitative and qualitative visual inspection methods, there has been not direct comparison between these two methods. To investigate this relationship, we created lung density met...

Pilot Dependence on Imperfect Diagnostic Automation in Simulated UAV Flights: An Attentional Visual Scanning Analysis

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wickens, Christopher; Dixon, Stephen; Goh, Juliana; Hammer, Ben

2005-01-01

An unmanned air vehicle (UAV) simulation was designed to reveal the effects of imperfectly reliable diagnostic automation a monitor of system health parameters on pilot attention, as the latter was assessed via visual scanning...

Safety, feasibility, and acceptability of visual inspection with acetic acid and immediate treatment with cryotherapy in rural Laos.

Science.gov (United States)

Phongsavan, Keokedthong; Phengsavanh, Alongkone; Wahlström, Rolf; Marions, Lena

2011-09-01

To assess the safety, acceptability, and feasibility of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) followed by immediate treatment with cryotherapy as a single-visit approach for the prevention of cervical cancer among women in rural Laos. In 2009, women from 2 provinces in Laos were recruited for cervical cancer screening using VIA. If the inspection of the cervix showed a well-defined acetowhite lesion close to the os, immediate cryotherapy was offered. Of the 1926 women who were included, 134 (7.0%) tested positive on VIA. Of these, 113 (84.3%) underwent immediate cryotherapy and none declined treatment. One year after immediate cryotherapy, 77 (68.1%) women returned for a follow-up assessment and 68 (88.3%) were now VIA-negative. There was no report of a major complication during or after treatment. The acceptance of both VIA and cryotherapy was high. Visual inspection with acetic acid is a simple test that requires minimal infrastructure and expenditure. Integration of VIA with cryotherapy at the primary care level may constitute a feasible program for the prevention of cervical cancer in Laos. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visual bottle inspection performance in highly paced belt-conveyor systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, M; Tanaka, T

1977-12-01

The relation between visual work performance and a few variables with immediate effects, i.e, lighting, work speed, work spell, etc. was studied. At the same time, some physiological and behavioral variations obtained in the study were also discussed. Through experiments and surveys, the optimum conditions were found for each variable. Work performance, however, is affected in such a subtle, interactive and dynamic manner that the working conditions are to be adjusted by taking into account not only these variables having immediate effects but also those indirectly relating ones meeting real needs in the practical working fields. Improvement of some physical working conditions, such as lighting, produces only a transitory increase of performance which is very unstable unless other determinants of performance are simultaneously managed in a proper manner. The same applied to arrangement of the optimum work speed and work spell for highly paced visual inspection, variations in rejection rate and in physiological functions interacting with individual and other determinants. In order to maximize understanding of the integrated and synthesized manner of determinants, it is emphasized that work performance must be pursued in a considerably comprehensive framework from a long-term perspective.

Automatic visual inspection of a missing split pin in the China railway high-speed.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Shengfang; Liu, Zhen

2016-10-20

The split pin (SP) on the caliper brake is a vital component of the brake system of a bogie traveling along the China railway high-speed (CRH), and the absence of the SP could cause serious train accidents. A new automatic visual inspection method is proposed for the quick and accurate detection of SP faults of the CRH. The proposed approach is based on the histogram of gradient (HOG) combined with the complete local binary pattern (CLBP). First, a fast pyramid template matching technique is presented for localizing the region of interest to reduce the searching scope. Under the multiresolution pyramid model for target localization, a coarse-to-fine strategy is employed to ensure that the recognizing speed of the SP for the entire image is increased significantly. Second, a hierarchical framework is adopted at the localizing and inspecting stages of the SP to automatically implement the inspection tasks. To increase the robustness to the outside complex illumination, the HOG feature for localizing the target and the CLBP feature for examining the state of the SP (i.e., missing or not-missing) are extracted in the Sobel gradient domain. The localization and recognition stages are both fulfilled through the use of their respective intersection kernel support vector machine classifiers and corresponding features. In conclusion, experimental results indicate that the inspection system achieves a high accuracy rate of more than 99.0% and a real-time speed, thus proving that the proposed method is effective for the fault inspection of the SP and can satisfy the requirements of CRH's actual application.

[Transient elevation of intraocular pressure in primary open-angle glaucoma patients after automated visual field examination in the winter].

Science.gov (United States)

Nishino, Kazuaki; Yoshida, Fujiko; Nitta, Akari; Saito, Mieko; Saito, Kazuuchi

2013-12-01

To evaluate retrospectively seasonal fluctuations of transient intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation after automated visual field examination in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). We reviewed 53 consecutive patients with POAG who visited Kaimeido Ophthalmic and Dental Clinic from January 2011 to March 2013, 21 men and 32 women aged 67.7 +/- 11.2 years. The patients were divided into 4 groups, spring, summer, autumn, and winter according to the month of automated visual field examination and both eyes of each patient were enrolled. IOP was measured immediately after automated visual field examination (vf IOP) and compared with the average IOP from the previous 3 months (pre IOP) and with the average IOP from the following 3 months (post IOP) in each season. IOP elevation rate was defined as (vf IOP- pre IOP)/pre IOP x 100% and calculated for each season (paired t test). Additionally, the correlation between mean deviation (MD) and IOP elevation rate was evaluated (single regression analysis). Exclusion criteria were patients who received cataract surgery during this study or had a history of any previous glaucoma surgery. The automated visual field test was performed with a Humphrey field analyzer and the Central 30-2 FASTPAC threshold program. The average vf IOP was 14.5 +/- 2.5 mmHg, higher than pre IOP 13.8 +/- 2.4 mmHg (p field examination, especially in the winter but not in the summer.

CASTOR - Advanced System for VVER Steam Generator Inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mateljak, Petar

2014-01-01

From the safety point of view, steam generator is a very important component of a nuclear power plant. Only a thin tube wall prevents leakage of radioactive material from the primary side into the environment. Therefore, it is very important to perform inspections in order to detect pipe damage and apply appropriate corrective actions during outage. Application of the nondestructive examination (NDE) technique, that can locate degradation and measure its size and orientation, is an integral part of nuclear power plant maintenance. The steam generator inspection system is consisted of remotely controlled manipulator, testing instrument and software for data acquisition and analysis. Recently, the inspection systems have evolved to a much higher level of automation, efficiency and reliability resulting in a lower cost and shorter outage time. Electronic components have become smaller and deal with more complex algorithms. These systems are very fast, precise, reliable and easy to handle. The whole inspection, from the planning, examination, data analysis and final report, is now a highly automated process, which makes inspection much easier and more reliable. This paper presents the new generation of INETEC's VVER steam generator inspection system as ultimate solution for steam generator inspection and repair. (author)

Micronucleus test for radiation biodosimetry in mass casualty events: Evaluation of visual and automated scoring

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolognesi, Claudia, E-mail: claudia.bolognesi@istge.i [Environmental Carcinogenesis Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa (Italy); Balia, Cristina; Roggieri, Paola [Environmental Carcinogenesis Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa (Italy); Cardinale, Francesco [Clinical Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa (Italy); Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa (Italy); Bruzzi, Paolo [Clinical Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa (Italy); Sorcinelli, Francesca [Environmental Carcinogenesis Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa (Italy); Laboratory of Genetics, Histology and Molecular Biology Section, Army Medical and Veterinary, Research Center, Via Santo Stefano Rotondo 4, 00184 Roma (Italy); Lista, Florigio [Laboratory of Genetics, Histology and Molecular Biology Section, Army Medical and Veterinary, Research Center, Via Santo Stefano Rotondo 4, 00184 Roma (Italy); D' Amelio, Raffaele [Sapienza, Universita di Roma II Facolta di Medicina e Chirurgia and Ministero della Difesa, Direzione Generale Sanita Militare (Italy); Righi, Enzo [Frascati National Laboratories, National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati, Rome (Italy)

2011-02-15

In the case of a large-scale nuclear or radiological incidents a reliable estimate of dose is an essential tool for providing timely assessment of radiation exposure and for making life-saving medical decisions. Cytogenetics is considered as the 'gold standard' for biodosimetry. The dicentric analysis (DA) represents the most specific cytogenetic bioassay. The micronucleus test (MN) applied in interphase in peripheral lymphocytes is an alternative and simpler approach. A dose-effect calibration curve for the MN frequency in peripheral lymphocytes from 27 adult donors was established after in vitro irradiation at a dose range 0.15-8 Gy of {sup 137}Cs gamma rays (dose rate 6 Gy min{sup -1}). Dose prediction by visual scoring in a dose-blinded study (0.15-4.0 Gy) revealed a high level of accuracy (R = 0.89). The scoring of MN is time consuming and requires adequate skills and expertise. Automated image analysis is a feasible approach allowing to reduce the time and to increase the accuracy of the dose estimation decreasing the variability due to subjective evaluation. A good correlation (R = 0.705) between visual and automated scoring with visual correction was observed over the dose range 0-2 Gy. Almost perfect discrimination power for exposure to 1-2 Gy, and a satisfactory power for 0.6 Gy were detected. This threshold level can be considered sufficient for identification of sub lethally exposed individuals by automated CBMN assay.

Automated retinofugal visual pathway reconstruction with multi-shell HARDI and FOD-based analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kammen, Alexandra; Law, Meng; Tjan, Bosco S; Toga, Arthur W; Shi, Yonggang

2016-01-15

Diffusion MRI tractography provides a non-invasive modality to examine the human retinofugal projection, which consists of the optic nerves, optic chiasm, optic tracts, the lateral geniculate nuclei (LGN) and the optic radiations. However, the pathway has several anatomic features that make it particularly challenging to study with tractography, including its location near blood vessels and bone-air interface at the base of the cerebrum, crossing fibers at the chiasm, somewhat-tortuous course around the temporal horn via Meyer's Loop, and multiple closely neighboring fiber bundles. To date, these unique complexities of the visual pathway have impeded the development of a robust and automated reconstruction method using tractography. To overcome these challenges, we develop a novel, fully automated system to reconstruct the retinofugal visual pathway from high-resolution diffusion imaging data. Using multi-shell, high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data, we reconstruct precise fiber orientation distributions (FODs) with high order spherical harmonics (SPHARM) to resolve fiber crossings, which allows the tractography algorithm to successfully navigate the complicated anatomy surrounding the retinofugal pathway. We also develop automated algorithms for the identification of ROIs used for fiber bundle reconstruction. In particular, we develop a novel approach to extract the LGN region of interest (ROI) based on intrinsic shape analysis of a fiber bundle computed from a seed region at the optic chiasm to a target at the primary visual cortex. By combining automatically identified ROIs and FOD-based tractography, we obtain a fully automated system to compute the main components of the retinofugal pathway, including the optic tract and the optic radiation. We apply our method to the multi-shell HARDI data of 215 subjects from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Through comparisons with post-mortem dissection measurements, we demonstrate the retinotopic

A randomized trial comparing the diagnostic accuracy of visual inspection with acetic acid to Visual Inspection with Lugol's Iodine for cervical cancer screening in HIV-infected women.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan J Huchko

Full Text Available Visual inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA and Visual Inspection with Lugol’s Iodine (VILI are increasingly recommended in various cervical cancer screening protocols in low-resource settings. Although VIA is more widely used, VILI has been advocated as an easier and more specific screening test. VILI has not been well-validated as a stand-alone screening test, compared to VIA or validated for use in HIV-infected women. We carried out a randomized clinical trial to compare the diagnostic accuracy of VIA and VILI among HIV-infected women. Women attending the Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES clinic in western Kenya were enrolled and randomized to undergo either VIA or VILI with colposcopy. Lesions suspicious for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or greater (CIN2+ were biopsied. Between October 2011 and June 2012, 654 were randomized to undergo VIA or VILI. The test positivity rates were 26.2% for VIA and 30.6% for VILI (p = 0.22. The rate of detection of CIN2+ was 7.7% in the VIA arm and 11.5% in the VILI arm (p = 0.10. There was no significant difference in the diagnostic performance of VIA and VILI for the detection of CIN2+. Sensitivity and specificity were 84.0% and 78.6%, respectively, for VIA and 84.2% and 76.4% for VILI. The positive and negative predictive values were 24.7% and 98.3% for VIA, and 31.7% and 97.4% for VILI. Among women with CD4+ count < 350, VILI had a significantly decreased specificity (66.2% compared to VIA in the same group (83.9%, p = 0.02 and compared to VILI performed among women with CD4+ count ≥ 350 (79.7%, p = 0.02. VIA and VILI had similar diagnostic accuracy and rates of CIN2+ detection among HIV-infected women.

Automated vehicle for railway track fault detection

Science.gov (United States)

Bhushan, M.; Sujay, S.; Tushar, B.; Chitra, P.

2017-11-01

For the safety reasons, railroad tracks need to be inspected on a regular basis for detecting physical defects or design non compliances. Such track defects and non compliances, if not detected in a certain interval of time, may eventually lead to severe consequences such as train derailments. Inspection must happen twice weekly by a human inspector to maintain safety standards as there are hundreds and thousands of miles of railroad track. But in such type of manual inspection, there are many drawbacks that may result in the poor inspection of the track, due to which accidents may cause in future. So to avoid such errors and severe accidents, this automated system is designed.Such a concept would surely introduce automation in the field of inspection process of railway track and can help to avoid mishaps and severe accidents due to faults in the track.

QuickRNASeq lifts large-scale RNA-seq data analyses to the next level of automation and interactive visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shanrong; Xi, Li; Quan, Jie; Xi, Hualin; Zhang, Ying; von Schack, David; Vincent, Michael; Zhang, Baohong

2016-01-08

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), a next-generation sequencing technique for transcriptome profiling, is being increasingly used, in part driven by the decreasing cost of sequencing. Nevertheless, the analysis of the massive amounts of data generated by large-scale RNA-seq remains a challenge. Multiple algorithms pertinent to basic analyses have been developed, and there is an increasing need to automate the use of these tools so as to obtain results in an efficient and user friendly manner. Increased automation and improved visualization of the results will help make the results and findings of the analyses readily available to experimental scientists. By combing the best open source tools developed for RNA-seq data analyses and the most advanced web 2.0 technologies, we have implemented QuickRNASeq, a pipeline for large-scale RNA-seq data analyses and visualization. The QuickRNASeq workflow consists of three main steps. In Step #1, each individual sample is processed, including mapping RNA-seq reads to a reference genome, counting the numbers of mapped reads, quality control of the aligned reads, and SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) calling. Step #1 is computationally intensive, and can be processed in parallel. In Step #2, the results from individual samples are merged, and an integrated and interactive project report is generated. All analyses results in the report are accessible via a single HTML entry webpage. Step #3 is the data interpretation and presentation step. The rich visualization features implemented here allow end users to interactively explore the results of RNA-seq data analyses, and to gain more insights into RNA-seq datasets. In addition, we used a real world dataset to demonstrate the simplicity and efficiency of QuickRNASeq in RNA-seq data analyses and interactive visualizations. The seamless integration of automated capabilites with interactive visualizations in QuickRNASeq is not available in other published RNA-seq pipelines. The high degree

Optical inspection techniques for security instrumentation

Science.gov (United States)

van Renesse, Rudolf L.

1996-03-01

This paper reviews four optical inspection systems, in which development TNO Institute of Applied Physics was involved: (1) intaglio scanning and recognition, (2) banknote quality inspection, (3) visualization and reading of a finger pattern, and (4) 3DAS authentication. (1) Intaglio is reserved for high security printing. It renders a tactile relief that can be recognized by a laser scanning technique. This technique is applied by various national banks to detect counterfeit banknotes returning from circulation. A new system is proposed that will detect intaglio on arbitrary wrinkled banknotes. (2) A banknote fitness inspection system (BFIS) that inspects banknotes in specularly reflected light is described. As modern banknotes are provided increasingly with reflective security foils, a new system is proposed that inspects banknotes in specular and diffuse reflection, as well as in transmission. (3) An alternative visualization method for visualization of finger patterns is described, employing a reflective elastomer. A CD scanning system reads the finger patterns. (4) A nonwoven structure has two advantageous properties for card authentication: a random structure which renders each few square millimeters of the pattern uniqueness (identification) and a 3D structure which makes it virtually impossible to be counterfeited (authentication). Both properties are inspected by an extremely simple lenseless reader.

Development of an amphibious robot for visual inspection of APR1400 Npp IRWST strainer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, You Hyun; Kim, Jong Seog

2014-01-01

An amphibious inspection robot system (hereafter AIROS) is being developed to visually inspect the in-containment refueling storage water tank (hereafter IRWST) strainer in APR1400 instead of a human diver. Four IRWST strainers are located in the IRWST, which is filled with boric acid water. Each strainer has 108 sub-assembly strainer fin modules that should be inspected with the VT-3 method according to Reg. guide 1.82 and the operation manual. AIROS has 6 thrusters for submarine voyage and 4 legs for walking on the top of the strainer. An inverse kinematic algorithm was implemented in the robot controller for exact walking on the top of the IRWST strainer. The IRWST strainer has several top cross braces that are extruded on the top of the strainer, which can be obstacles of walking on the strainer, to maintain the frame of the strainer. Therefore, a robot leg should arrive at the position beside the top cross brace. For this reason, we used an image processing technique to find the top cross brace in the sole camera image. The sole camera image is processed to find the existence of the top cross brace using the cross edge detection algorithm in real time. A 5-DOF robot arm that has multiple camera modules for simultaneous inspection of both sides can penetrate narrow gaps. For intuitive presentation of inspection results and for management of inspection data, inspection images are stored in the control PC with camera angles and positions to synthesize and merge the images. The synthesized images are then mapped in a 3D CAD model of the IRWST strainer with the location information. An IRWST strainer mock-up was fabricated to teach the robot arm scanning and gaiting. It is important to arrive at the designated position for inserting the robot arm into all of the gaps. Exact position control without anchor under the water is not easy. Therefore, we designed the multi leg robot for the role of anchoring and positioning. Quadruped robot design of installing sole

Development of an amphibious robot for visual inspection of APR1400 Npp IRWST strainer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, You Hyun; Kim, Jong Seog [Korea Hydro Nuclear Power Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-06-15

An amphibious inspection robot system (hereafter AIROS) is being developed to visually inspect the in-containment refueling storage water tank (hereafter IRWST) strainer in APR1400 instead of a human diver. Four IRWST strainers are located in the IRWST, which is filled with boric acid water. Each strainer has 108 sub-assembly strainer fin modules that should be inspected with the VT-3 method according to Reg. guide 1.82 and the operation manual. AIROS has 6 thrusters for submarine voyage and 4 legs for walking on the top of the strainer. An inverse kinematic algorithm was implemented in the robot controller for exact walking on the top of the IRWST strainer. The IRWST strainer has several top cross braces that are extruded on the top of the strainer, which can be obstacles of walking on the strainer, to maintain the frame of the strainer. Therefore, a robot leg should arrive at the position beside the top cross brace. For this reason, we used an image processing technique to find the top cross brace in the sole camera image. The sole camera image is processed to find the existence of the top cross brace using the cross edge detection algorithm in real time. A 5-DOF robot arm that has multiple camera modules for simultaneous inspection of both sides can penetrate narrow gaps. For intuitive presentation of inspection results and for management of inspection data, inspection images are stored in the control PC with camera angles and positions to synthesize and merge the images. The synthesized images are then mapped in a 3D CAD model of the IRWST strainer with the location information. An IRWST strainer mock-up was fabricated to teach the robot arm scanning and gaiting. It is important to arrive at the designated position for inserting the robot arm into all of the gaps. Exact position control without anchor under the water is not easy. Therefore, we designed the multi leg robot for the role of anchoring and positioning. Quadruped robot design of installing sole

Babcock experience of automated ultrasonic non-destructive testing of PWR pressure vessels during manufacture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dikstra, B.J.; Farley, J.M.; Scruton, G.

1990-01-01

Major developments in ultrasonic techniques, equipment and systems for automated inspection have lead, over a period of about ten years, to the regular application of sophisticated computer-controlled systems during the manufacture of nuclear reactor pressure vessels. Ten years ago the use of procedures defined in a code such as ASME XI might have been considered sufficient, but it is now necessary, as was demonstrated by the results of the UKAEA defect detection trials and the PISC II trials, to apply more comprehensive arrays of probes and higher test sensitivities. The ultrasonic techniques selected are demonstrated to be adequate by modelling or test-block exercises, the automated systems applied are subject to stringent quality assurance testing, and very rigorous inspection procedures are used in conjunction with a high degree of automation to ensure reproducibility of inspection quality. The state-of-the-art in automated ultrasonic testing of pressure vessels by Babcock is described. Current developments by the company, including automated flaw recognition, integrated modelling of inspection capability, and the use of electronically scanned variable-angle probes are reviewed. Examples quoted include the automated ultrasonic inspections of the Sizewell B pressurized water reactor vessel. (author)

In-situ thermography of automated fiber placement parts

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory, Elizabeth D.; Juarez, Peter D.

2018-04-01

Automated fiber placement (AFP) provides precision and repeatable manufacturing of both simple and complex geometry composite parts. However, AFP also introduces the possibility for unique flaws such as overlapping tows, gaps between tows, tow twists, lack of layer adhesion and foreign object debris. These types of flaws can all result in a significant loss of performance in the final part. The current inspection method for these flaws is a costly and time intensive visual inspection of each ply layer. This work describes some initial efforts to incorporate thermal inspection on the AFP head and analysis of the data to identify the previously mentioned flaws. Previous bench-top laboratory experiments demonstrated that laps, gaps, and twists were identified from a thermal image. The AFP head uses an on- board lamp to preheat the surface of the part during layup to increase ply consolidation. The preheated surface is used as a thermal source to observe the state of the new material after compaction. We will present data collected with the Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) AFP machine at Langley Research Center showing that changes to the temperature profile is sufficient for identifying all types of flaws.

Developments in mechanical ultrasonic inspection and qualification of NDE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kauppinen, P.; Pitkaenen, J.; Kuusinen, P.

2001-01-01

Reliability of non-destructive testing results has a direct influence on structural integrity assessment and safety of the inspected structures e.g. NPP primary circuit pressure boundaries. Advanced technology together with highly skilled and experienced personnel is required. One of the current trends is automation. Mechanised equipment can replace tedious manual work in positioning and moving of the transducers. Large areas can be scanned, analysed and numerically documented for direct comparison of eventual later repeated inspections. Another major trend is qualification, which aims to ensure that the inspection results are correct and fit the purpose. The suitability and proper operation of equipment, methods and personnel i.e. the whole chain shall be proven. This presentation summarises the advances in automation and qualification of non-destructive inspection during the second project year, Monitoring of material degradation was included in the studied topics and will also be shortly described. (author)

Inspection of rotor bores, retaining rings and turbine discs utilizing UDRPS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quinn, J.R.

1990-01-01

New construction in the U.S. utility industry is at a very low level. The average age of plants in increasing almost linearly with time, many units will pass nominal end of life in the next decade. Planned new construction now takes ten years to effect at a minimum. The need for more reliable inspection of high stress utility components is and will continue to be a subject of increased emphasis. Dynacon Systems Inc. has recently introduced into commercial service, a fully automated ultrasonic inspection instrumentation package designed to significantly increase the reliability of turbine/generator rotor shaft, LP disc and generator retaining ring inspections. The package is designed to automate to a very high degree, the entire analysis process, thus eliminating operator error sources. The automated process begins at the ultrasonic pulse generator and ends with the input to fracture mechanics analysis

Visual Servoing-Based Nanorobotic System for Automated Electrical Characterization of Nanotubes inside SEM.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Huiyang; Shi, Chaoyang; Ma, Li; Yang, Zhan; Wang, Mingyu; Wang, Yaqiong; Chen, Tao; Sun, Lining; Toshio, Fukuda

2018-04-08

The maneuvering and electrical characterization of nanotubes inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has historically been time-consuming and laborious for operators. Before the development of automated nanomanipulation-enabled techniques for the performance of pick-and-place and characterization of nanoobjects, these functions were still incomplete and largely operated manually. In this paper, a dual-probe nanomanipulation system vision-based feedback was demonstrated to automatically perform 3D nanomanipulation tasks, to investigate the electrical characterization of nanotubes. The XY-position of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilevers and individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were precisely recognized via a series of image processing operations. A coarse-to-fine positioning strategy in the Z-direction was applied through the combination of the sharpness-based depth estimation method and the contact-detection method. The use of nanorobotic magnification-regulated speed aided in improving working efficiency and reliability. Additionally, we proposed automated alignment of manipulator axes by visual tracking the movement trajectory of the end effector. The experimental results indicate the system's capability for automated measurement electrical characterization of CNTs. Furthermore, the automated nanomanipulation system has the potential to be extended to other nanomanipulation tasks.

Were they in the loop during automated driving? Links between visual attention and crash potential.

Science.gov (United States)

Louw, Tyron; Madigan, Ruth; Carsten, Oliver; Merat, Natasha

2017-08-01

A proposed advantage of vehicle automation is that it relieves drivers from the moment-to-moment demands of driving, to engage in other, non-driving related, tasks. However, it is important to gain an understanding of drivers' capacity to resume manual control, should such a need arise. As automation removes vehicle control-based measures as a performance indicator, other metrics must be explored. This driving simulator study, conducted under the European Commission (EC) funded AdaptIVe project, assessed drivers' gaze fixations during partially-automated (SAE Level 2) driving, on approach to critical and non-critical events. Using a between-participant design, 75 drivers experienced automation with one of five out-of-the-loop (OOTL) manipulations, which used different levels of screen visibility and secondary tasks to induce varying levels of engagement with the driving task: 1) no manipulation, 2) manipulation by light fog, 3) manipulation by heavy fog, 4) manipulation by heavy fog plus a visual task, 5) no manipulation plus an n-back task. The OOTL manipulations influenced drivers' first point of gaze fixation after they were asked to attend to an evolving event. Differences resolved within one second and visual attention allocation adapted with repeated events, yet crash outcome was not different between OOTL manipulation groups. Drivers who crashed in the first critical event showed an erratic pattern of eye fixations towards the road centre on approach to the event, while those who did not demonstrated a more stable pattern. Automated driving systems should be able to direct drivers' attention to hazards no less than 6 seconds in advance of an adverse outcome. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Automated evaluation of ultrasonic indications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansch, M.K.T.; Stegemann, D.

1994-01-01

Future requirements of reliability and reproducibility in quality assurance demand computer evaluation of defect indications. The ultrasonic method with its large field of applications and a high potential for automation provides all preconditions for fully automated inspection. The survey proposes several desirable hardware improvements, data acquisition requirements and software configurations. (orig.) [de

1990 waste tank inspection program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McNatt, F.G.

1990-01-01

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site separations processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Tank conditions are evaluated by inspection using periscopes, still photography, and video systems for visual imagery. Inspections made in 1990 are the subject of this report

Development of a Remotely-operated Visual Inspection System for Reactor Vessel Bottommounted Instrument Penetrations of KSNP and Lessons Learned

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Kyungmin; Choi, Youngsu; Lee, Sunguk; Seo, Yongchil; Kang, Jong Gyu; Kim, Seungho; Jung, Seungho

2006-01-01

In April 2003, South Texas Project Unit 1 made a surprising discovery of boron acid leakage from two nozzles from a bare-metal examination of the reactor vessel bottom-mounted instrument penetrations during a routine refueling outage. A small powdery substance about 150mg was found on the outside of two instrument guide penetration nozzles on the bottom of the reactor. The primary coolant water of pressurized water reactors has caused cracking in penetrations with Alloy 600 through a process called primary water stress corrosion cracking. In South Korea, it is required to conduct 100% visual inspection of the outside of instrument guide penetration nozzles on the bottom of PWRs to confirm the integrity of reactor vessel. This paper describes the remotely-operated visual inspection systems for reactor vessel bottom-mounted instrument penetrations dispatched two times to Youngkwang NPPs and discusses the lessons learned

In service inspection of superphenix 1 vessels: MIR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asty, M.; Viard, J.; Lerat, B.; Saglio, R.

1985-02-01

Presentation of the in-service inspection device, MIR, which has been specially developed for the visual and ultrasonic examination of Super Phenix 1 vessels (surface and internal defects). The inspections take place during fuel handling operations. The inspection device is a robot with a four-wheel drive vehicle which guidance along the welds is achieved by eddy-current devices; visual examination is performed by a television camera and ultrasonic probes are specially resistent to high temperatures

Integrating image processing and classification technology into automated polarizing film defect inspection

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Chung-Feng Jeffrey; Lai, Chun-Yu; Kao, Chih-Hsiang; Chiu, Chin-Hsun

2018-05-01

In order to improve the current manual inspection and classification process for polarizing film on production lines, this study proposes a high precision automated inspection and classification system for polarizing film, which is used for recognition and classification of four common defects: dent, foreign material, bright spot, and scratch. First, the median filter is used to remove the impulse noise in the defect image of polarizing film. The random noise in the background is smoothed by the improved anisotropic diffusion, while the edge detail of the defect region is sharpened. Next, the defect image is transformed by Fourier transform to the frequency domain, combined with a Butterworth high pass filter to sharpen the edge detail of the defect region, and brought back by inverse Fourier transform to the spatial domain to complete the image enhancement process. For image segmentation, the edge of the defect region is found by Canny edge detector, and then the complete defect region is obtained by two-stage morphology processing. For defect classification, the feature values, including maximum gray level, eccentricity, the contrast, and homogeneity of gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) extracted from the images, are used as the input of the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) classifier, 96 defect images are then used as training samples, and 84 defect images are used as testing samples to validate the classification effect. The result shows that the classification accuracy by using RBFNN is 98.9%. Thus, our proposed system can be used by manufacturing companies for a higher yield rate and lower cost. The processing time of one single image is 2.57 seconds, thus meeting the practical application requirement of an industrial production line.

Apparative developments for inservice inspections of reactor pressure vessels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bohn, H.; Ruthrof, K.; Barbian, O.A.; Kappes, W.; Neumann, R.; Stanger, H.K.

1987-01-01

Emphasizing PWR pressure vessel (RPV) inspections, recent developments of new generations of automated and mechanized ultrasonic inspection equipment are presented. Starting from general equipment design and inservice implenentation criteria, specific examples are given. Main attention is directed to equipment realization of phased array and ALOK inspection techniques, especially in their combination. Refined aspects of subsequent computer processing and evaluation of defect detection data are described. Analytical features and potential for further developments become evident. Remote controlled RPV inspections are stressed by describing a new generation of central mast manipulators, forming an integral part of total inservice inspection system. (orig./HP)

DEVELOPMENT OF AN AMPHIBIOUS ROBOT FOR VISUAL INSPECTION OF APR1400 NPP IRWST STRAINER ASSEMBLY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YOU HYUN JANG

2014-06-01

Full Text Available An amphibious inspection robot system (hereafter AIROS is being developed to visually inspect the in-containment refueling storage water tank (hereafter IRWST strainer in APR1400 instead of a human diver. Four IRWST strainers are located in the IRWST, which is filled with boric acid water. Each strainer has 108 sub-assembly strainer fin modules that should be inspected with the VT-3 method according to Reg. guide 1.82 and the operation manual. AIROS has 6 thrusters for submarine voyage and 4 legs for walking on the top of the strainer. An inverse kinematic algorithm was implemented in the robot controller for exact walking on the top of the IRWST strainer. The IRWST strainer has several top cross braces that are extruded on the top of the strainer, which can be obstacles of walking on the strainer, to maintain the frame of the strainer. Therefore, a robot leg should arrive at the position beside the top cross brace. For this reason, we used an image processing technique to find the top cross brace in the sole camera image. The sole camera image is processed to find the existence of the top cross brace using the cross edge detection algorithm in real time. A 5-DOF robot arm that has multiple camera modules for simultaneous inspection of both sides can penetrate narrow gaps. For intuitive presentation of inspection results and for management of inspection data, inspection images are stored in the control PC with camera angles and positions to synthesize and merge the images. The synthesized images are then mapped in a 3D CAD model of the IRWST strainer with the location information. An IRWST strainer mock-up was fabricated to teach the robot arm scanning and gaiting. It is important to arrive at the designated position for inserting the robot arm into all of the gaps. Exact position control without anchor under the water is not easy. Therefore, we designed the multi leg robot for the role of anchoring and positioning. Quadruped robot design of

Surface inspection of flat products by means of texture analysis: on-line implementation using neural networks

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, Carlos; Platero, Carlos; Campoy, Pascual; Aracil, Rafael

1994-11-01

This paper describes some texture-based techniques that can be applied to quality assessment of flat products continuously produced (metal strips, wooden surfaces, cork, textile products, ...). Since the most difficult task is that of inspecting for product appearance, human-like inspection ability is required. A common feature to all these products is the presence of non- deterministic texture on their surfaces. Two main subjects are discussed: statistical techniques for both surface finishing determination and surface defect analysis as well as real-time implementation for on-line inspection in high-speed applications. For surface finishing determination a Gray Level Difference technique is presented to perform over low resolution images, that is, no-zoomed images. Defect analysis is performed by means of statistical texture analysis over defective portions of the surface. On-line implementation is accomplished by means of neural networks. When a defect arises, textural analysis is applied which result in a data-vector, acting as input of a neural net, previously trained in a supervised way. This approach tries to reach on-line performance in automated visual inspection applications when texture is presented in flat product surfaces.

Operational inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bystersky, M.

1997-01-01

Special equipment is described, designed for inspection of reactor pressure vessels performed from the inside. Central shaft manipulator ZMM-5 is available for crack detection control using ultrasound and eddy currents, for visual check of surfaces, repair works at the reactor pressure vessel, and hardness measurements. The manipulator consists of the manipulator bridge, a cable container, shaft segments, a control mechanism and auxiliary parts. Eight inspections were performed at the Bohunice nuclear power plant and two at the Paks nuclear power plant. (M.D.)

Tire inspection system with shielded x-ray source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heisner, D.N.; Palermo, A. Jr.; Loyer, P.K.

1976-01-01

An automated tire inspection system is described which employs a penetrative radiation, such as x-radiation, to inspect the integrity of portions of tires fed sequentially along a feed path through a centering station and into a shielded enclosure where an inspection station is defined. Features of the system include a continuously operating x-ray source movable between inspection and retracted positions, and an x-ray shield for covering the source when it is retracted to permit the doors of the shielded enclosure to be opened without danger from escaping radiation. 19 Claims, 38 Drawing Figures

Development of automated patrol-type monitoring and inspection system for nuclear power plant and application to actual plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senoo, Makoto; Koga, Kazunori; Hirakawa, Hiroshi; Tanaka, Keiji

1996-01-01

An automated patrol-type monitoring and inspection system was developed and applied in a nuclear power plant. This system consists of a monorail, a monitoring robot and an operator's console. The monitoring robot consists of a sensor unit and a control unit. Three kinds of sensor, a color ITV camera, an infrared camera and a microphone are installed in the sensor unit. The features of this monitoring robot are; (1) Weights 15 kg with a cross-sectional dimensions of 152 mm width and 290 mm height. (2) Several automatic monitoring functions are installed using image processing and frequency analysis for three sensor signals. (author)

Savannah River Plant waste tank inspection manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McNatt, F.G.

1979-01-01

This manual is to aid in making visual and photographic inspections and steel thickness measurements of Building 241-F and -H underground waste storage tanks. It describes the inspection program, the storage tanks, the equipment and techniques used and the results of their application, and the inspection recordkeeping methods

33 CFR 164.80 - Tests, inspections, and voyage planning.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... searchlights. (5) Terminal gear. Visual inspection of tackle; of connections of bridle and towing pendant, if.... (2) Terminal gear. Visual inspection of tackle; of connections of bridle and towing pendant, if... under-keel and vertical clearances (air-gaps) for all bridges, ports, and berthing areas; (v) Pre...

FY04 Inspection Results for Wet Uruguay Fuel in L-Basin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

VORMELKER, PHILIP

2005-09-01

The 2004 visual inspection of four Uruguay nuclear fuel assemblies stored in L-Basin was completed. This was the third inspection of this wet stored fuel since its arrival in the summer of 1998. Visual inspection photographs of the fuel from the previous and the recent inspections were compared and no evidence of significant corrosion was found on the individual fuel plate photographs. Fuel plates that showed areas of pitting in the cladding during the original receipt inspection were also identified during the 2004 inspection. However, a few pits were found on the non-fuel aluminum clamping plates that were not visible during the original and 2001 inspections.

Robotic fabrication and inspection for power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Date, Ranjit

2002-01-01

The usage of Robotic Automation is now an integral part of the modern manufacturing systems. Applications in nuclear power plants is no exception. As a matter of fact, as a result of the hazards of radiations for the human workers makes automation of the on-site working highly desirable. This presentation will focus on the broad benefits by use of automation in Power plants. Various processes and technologies for robotic applications in fabrication, maintenance and inspection will be highlighted. The specific technology features for use in nuclear environments will be highlighted

MOST-visualization: software for producing automated textbook-style maps of genome-scale metabolic networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, James J; Maor, Shay; Kim, Min Kyung; Lane, Anatoliy; Lun, Desmond S

2017-08-15

Visualization of metabolites, reactions and pathways in genome-scale metabolic networks (GEMs) can assist in understanding cellular metabolism. Three attributes are desirable in software used for visualizing GEMs: (i) automation, since GEMs can be quite large; (ii) production of understandable maps that provide ease in identification of pathways, reactions and metabolites; and (iii) visualization of the entire network to show how pathways are interconnected. No software currently exists for visualizing GEMs that satisfies all three characteristics, but MOST-Visualization, an extension of the software package MOST (Metabolic Optimization and Simulation Tool), satisfies (i), and by using a pre-drawn overview map of metabolism based on the Roche map satisfies (ii) and comes close to satisfying (iii). MOST is distributed for free on the GNU General Public License. The software and full documentation are available at http://most.ccib.rutgers.edu/. dslun@rutgers.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Verification of Remote Inspection Techniques for Reactor Internal Structures of Liquid Metal Reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joo, Young Sang; Lee, Jae Han

2007-02-01

The reactor internal structures and components of a liquid metal reactor (LMR) are submerged in hot sodium of reactor vessel. The division 3 of ASME code section XI specifies the visual inspection as major in-service inspection (ISI) methods of reactor internal structures and components. Reactor internals of LMR can not be visually examined due to opaque liquid sodium. The under-sodium viewing techniques using an ultrasonic wave should be applied for the visual inspection of reactor internals. Recently, an ultrasonic waveguide sensor with a strip plate has been developed for an application to the under-sodium inspection. In this study, visualization technique, ranging technique and monitoring technique have been suggested for the remote inspection of reactor internals by using the waveguide sensor. The feasibility of these remote inspection techniques using ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been evaluated by an experimental verification

Verification of Remote Inspection Techniques for Reactor Internal Structures of Liquid Metal Reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joo, Young Sang; Lee, Jae Han

2007-02-15

The reactor internal structures and components of a liquid metal reactor (LMR) are submerged in hot sodium of reactor vessel. The division 3 of ASME code section XI specifies the visual inspection as major in-service inspection (ISI) methods of reactor internal structures and components. Reactor internals of LMR can not be visually examined due to opaque liquid sodium. The under-sodium viewing techniques using an ultrasonic wave should be applied for the visual inspection of reactor internals. Recently, an ultrasonic waveguide sensor with a strip plate has been developed for an application to the under-sodium inspection. In this study, visualization technique, ranging technique and monitoring technique have been suggested for the remote inspection of reactor internals by using the waveguide sensor. The feasibility of these remote inspection techniques using ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been evaluated by an experimental verification.

A Vision-Based Self-Calibration Method for Robotic Visual Inspection Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Shibin; Ren, Yongjie; Zhu, Jigui; Yang, Shourui; Ye, Shenghua

2013-01-01

A vision-based robot self-calibration method is proposed in this paper to evaluate the kinematic parameter errors of a robot using a visual sensor mounted on its end-effector. This approach could be performed in the industrial field without external, expensive apparatus or an elaborate setup. A robot Tool Center Point (TCP) is defined in the structural model of a line-structured laser sensor, and aligned to a reference point fixed in the robot workspace. A mathematical model is established to formulate the misalignment errors with kinematic parameter errors and TCP position errors. Based on the fixed point constraints, the kinematic parameter errors and TCP position errors are identified with an iterative algorithm. Compared to the conventional methods, this proposed method eliminates the need for a robot-based-frame and hand-to-eye calibrations, shortens the error propagation chain, and makes the calibration process more accurate and convenient. A validation experiment is performed on an ABB IRB2400 robot. An optimal configuration on the number and distribution of fixed points in the robot workspace is obtained based on the experimental results. Comparative experiments reveal that there is a significant improvement of the measuring accuracy of the robotic visual inspection system. PMID:24300597

Development of Hardware and Software for Automated Ultrasonic Testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Sung Nam; Lee, Hee Jong; Yang, Seung Ok

2012-01-01

Nondestructive testing (NDT) for the construction and operating of NPPs plays an important role in confirming the integrity of the NPPs. Especially, Automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) is one of the primary nondestructive examination methods for in-service inspection of the welding parts in major components in NPPs. AUT is a reliable nondestructive testing because the data of AUT are saved and reviewed with other examiners. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power-Central Research Institute (KHNP-CRI) has developed an automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) system based on a high speed pulser-receiver. In combination with the designed software and hardware architecture, this new system permits user configurations for a wide range of user-specific applications through fully automated inspections using compact portable systems with up to eight channels. This paper gives an overview of hardware (H/W) and software (S/W) for the AUT system to inspect welds in NPPs

Automated optics inspection analysis for NIF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kegelmeyer, Laura M.; Clark, Raelyn; Leach, Richard R.; McGuigan, David; Kamm, Victoria Miller; Potter, Daniel; Salmon, J. Thad; Senecal, Joshua; Conder, Alan; Nostrand, Mike; Whitman, Pamela K.

2012-01-01

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a high-energy laser facility comprised of 192 beamlines that house thousands of optics. These optics guide, amplify and tightly focus light onto a tiny target for fusion ignition research and high energy density physics experiments. The condition of these optics is key to the economic, efficient and maximally energetic performance of the laser. Our goal, and novel achievement, is to find on the optics any imperfections while they are tens of microns in size, track them through time to see if they grow and if so, remove the optic and repair the single site so the entire optic can then be re-installed for further use on the laser. This paper gives an overview of the image analysis used for detecting, measuring, and tracking sites of interest on an optic while it is installed on the beamline via in situ inspection and after it has been removed for maintenance. In this way, the condition of each optic is monitored throughout the optic's lifetime. This overview paper will summarize key algorithms and technical developments for custom image analysis and processing and highlight recent improvements. (Associated papers will include more details on these issues.) We will also discuss the use of OI Analysis for daily operation of the NIF laser and its extension to inspection of NIF targets.

Automated optics inspection analysis for NIF

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kegelmeyer, Laura M., E-mail: kegelmeyer1@llnl.gov [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA (United States); Clark, Raelyn; Leach, Richard R.; McGuigan, David; Kamm, Victoria Miller; Potter, Daniel; Salmon, J. Thad; Senecal, Joshua; Conder, Alan; Nostrand, Mike; Whitman, Pamela K. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA (United States)

2012-12-15

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a high-energy laser facility comprised of 192 beamlines that house thousands of optics. These optics guide, amplify and tightly focus light onto a tiny target for fusion ignition research and high energy density physics experiments. The condition of these optics is key to the economic, efficient and maximally energetic performance of the laser. Our goal, and novel achievement, is to find on the optics any imperfections while they are tens of microns in size, track them through time to see if they grow and if so, remove the optic and repair the single site so the entire optic can then be re-installed for further use on the laser. This paper gives an overview of the image analysis used for detecting, measuring, and tracking sites of interest on an optic while it is installed on the beamline via in situ inspection and after it has been removed for maintenance. In this way, the condition of each optic is monitored throughout the optic's lifetime. This overview paper will summarize key algorithms and technical developments for custom image analysis and processing and highlight recent improvements. (Associated papers will include more details on these issues.) We will also discuss the use of OI Analysis for daily operation of the NIF laser and its extension to inspection of NIF targets.

8 CFR 235.7 - Automated inspection services.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... of automation when the POE is not staffed. An APP has limited hours of operation and is located at a... participant may not import merchandise or transport controlled or restricted items using PORTPASS. The entry...

The contribution of inspection to the management of risk

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baron, J. [Folville Consulting Inc., Ontario (Canada)

2016-01-15

Over the recent several years, the nuclear power industry has moved to designing in-service inspection programs based on plant risk analyses. This has led to significant reduction in the amount of inspections required thereby reducing the cost of the inspection process itself but, more significantly, the cost due to plant downtime. Inspection has no impact on the consequence of failure but, rather, mitigates risk through reduction in the probability of failure. In so doing, it is important to consider the reliability of inspections, how reliability may be improved through deployment of automation but consideration must also be given to human factors with respect to achieving and reporting correct results. (author)

Automated quality characterization of 3D printed bone scaffolds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Optimization of design is an important step in obtaining tissue engineering scaffolds with appropriate shapes and inner microstructures. Different shapes and sizes of scaffolds are modeled using UGS NX 6.0 software with variable pore sizes. The quality issue we are concerned is the scaffold porosity, which is mainly caused by the fabrication inaccuracies. Bone scaffolds are usually characterized using a scanning electron microscope, but this study presents a new automated inspection and classification technique. Due to many numbers and size variations for the pores, the manual inspection of the fabricated scaffolds tends to be error-prone and costly. Manual inspection also raises the chance of contamination. Thus, non-contact, precise inspection is preferred. In this study, the critical dimensions are automatically measured by the vision camera. The measured data are analyzed to classify the quality characteristics. The automated inspection and classification techniques developed in this study are expected to improve the quality of the fabricated scaffolds and reduce the overall cost of manufacturing.

Fully-automated computer-assisted method of CT brain scan analysis for the measurement of cerebrospinal fluid spaces and brain absorption density

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baldy, R.E.; Brindley, G.S.; Jacobson, R.R.; Reveley, M.A.; Lishman, W.A.; Ewusi-Mensah, I.; Turner, S.W.

1986-03-01

Computer-assisted methods of CT brain scan analysis offer considerable advantages over visual inspection, particularly in research; and several semi-automated methods are currently available. A new computer-assisted program is presented which provides fully automated processing of CT brain scans, depending on ''anatomical knowledge'' of where cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-containing spaces are likely to lie. After identifying these regions of interest quantitative estimates are then provided of CSF content in each slice in cisterns, ventricles, Sylvian fissure and interhemispheric fissure. Separate measures are also provided of mean brain density in each slice. These estimates can be summated to provide total ventricular and total brain volumes. The program shows a high correlation with measures derived from mechanical planimetry and visual grading procedures, also when tested against a phantom brain of known ventricular volume. The advantages and limitations of the present program are discussed.

Automated estimation of choroidal thickness distribution and volume based on OCT images of posterior visual section.

Science.gov (United States)

Vupparaboina, Kiran Kumar; Nizampatnam, Srinath; Chhablani, Jay; Richhariya, Ashutosh; Jana, Soumya

2015-12-01

A variety of vision ailments are indicated by anomalies in the choroid layer of the posterior visual section. Consequently, choroidal thickness and volume measurements, usually performed by experts based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) images, have assumed diagnostic significance. Now, to save precious expert time, it has become imperative to develop automated methods. To this end, one requires choroid outer boundary (COB) detection as a crucial step, where difficulty arises as the COB divides the choroidal granularity and the scleral uniformity only notionally, without marked brightness variation. In this backdrop, we measure the structural dissimilarity between choroid and sclera by structural similarity (SSIM) index, and hence estimate the COB by thresholding. Subsequently, smooth COB estimates, mimicking manual delineation, are obtained using tensor voting. On five datasets, each consisting of 97 adult OCT B-scans, automated and manual segmentation results agree visually. We also demonstrate close statistical match (greater than 99.6% correlation) between choroidal thickness distributions obtained algorithmically and manually. Further, quantitative superiority of our method is established over existing results by respective factors of 27.67% and 76.04% in two quotient measures defined relative to observer repeatability. Finally, automated choroidal volume estimation, being attempted for the first time, also yields results in close agreement with that of manual methods. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agreement Between Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid and Papanicolaous Smear as Screening Methods for Cervical Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naz, U.; Hanif, S.

2014-01-01

Objective: To determine degree of agreement between visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and Papanicolaous (Pap) smear as screening methods for cervical cancer. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, from July to December 2012. Methodology: Two hundred and fifty women in reproductive age group presenting with various gynaecological complaints were included in the study. A Papanicolaous smear was taken and visual inspection with 5% acetic acid was done. VIA was reported as positive or negative according to acetowhite changes and cytology result was graded as CIN 1, 2, 3 and squamous carcinoma. Those women who showed positive result with either VIA or Pap smear or both were further subjected to colposcopic directed biopsy which was taken as gold standard. Results were computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 and statistical test used was kappa. Results: Out of 250 women, VIA was positive in 55 (22%) patients and Pap smear was abnormal in 27 (10.8%). Histological diagnosis of CIN/cancer was made in 36 out of a total 62 patients who underwent biopsy. Conclusion: There was a fair agreement between VIA and Pap smear, with VIA detecting more abnormalities than cytology. In the absence of Pap smear availability, VIA may be a reasonable cervical cancer screening method, especially in low resource settings. (author)

Development of the visual inspection system for the top of the tube sheet in steam generators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Gyung Sub; Choi, Sang Hoon; Kim, Ki Chul

2008-01-01

Steam Generators at Nuclear Power plants have a important function to isolate Radioactivity between the primary side radioactive fluid running through tubes and the secondary side with non-radioactive fluid through out of a tube bundle, in addition to a function of steam generation. Therefore, To obtain integrity of Steam Generator is really important for safety in the nuclear power plant. At the same time, sludge and foreign objects in steam generators are known as major sources causing the damage of SG tubes. But there is no way to prevent those coming to steam generators until now. Therefore, a periodic inspection and removal of those in steam generators is the only way for those Generally, Most of the Nuclear Power Plants have been inspecting visually every outage for the top of the tube sheet in which sludge and foreign objects lead to the buildup to know how these are

Processing of microencapsulated dyes for the visual inspection of fibre reinforced plastics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hopmann, Ch., E-mail: kerschbaum@ikv.rwth-aachen.de; Kerschbaum, M., E-mail: kerschbaum@ikv.rwth-aachen.de; Küsters, K., E-mail: kerschbaum@ikv.rwth-aachen.de [Institute of Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen University (IKV), Pontstrasse 49, 52064 Aachen (Germany)

2014-05-15

The evaluation of damages caused during processing, assembly or usage of fibre reinforced plastics is still a challenge. The use of inspection technology like ultrasonic scanning enables a detailed damage analysis but requires high investments and trained staff. Therefore, the visual inspection method is widely used. A drawback of this method is the difficult identification of barely visible damages, which can already be detrimental for the structural integrity. Therefore an approach is undertaken to integrate microencapsulated dyes into the laminates of fibre reinforced plastic parts to highlight damages on the surface. In case of a damage, the microcapsules rupture which leads to a release of the dye and a visible bruise on the part surface. To enable a wide application spectrum for this technology the microcapsules must be processable without rupturing with established manufacturing processes for fibre reinforced plastics. Therefore the incorporation of microcapsules in the filament winding, prepreg autoclave and resin transfer moulding (RTM) process is investigated. The results show that the use of a carrier medium is a feasible way to incorporate the microcapsules into the laminate for all investigated manufacturing processes. Impact testing of these laminates shows a bruise formation on the specimen surface which correlates with the impact energy level. This indicates a microcapsule survival during processing and shows the potential of this technology for damage detection and characterization.

Processing of microencapsulated dyes for the visual inspection of fibre reinforced plastics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hopmann, Ch.; Kerschbaum, M.; Küsters, K.

2014-01-01

The evaluation of damages caused during processing, assembly or usage of fibre reinforced plastics is still a challenge. The use of inspection technology like ultrasonic scanning enables a detailed damage analysis but requires high investments and trained staff. Therefore, the visual inspection method is widely used. A drawback of this method is the difficult identification of barely visible damages, which can already be detrimental for the structural integrity. Therefore an approach is undertaken to integrate microencapsulated dyes into the laminates of fibre reinforced plastic parts to highlight damages on the surface. In case of a damage, the microcapsules rupture which leads to a release of the dye and a visible bruise on the part surface. To enable a wide application spectrum for this technology the microcapsules must be processable without rupturing with established manufacturing processes for fibre reinforced plastics. Therefore the incorporation of microcapsules in the filament winding, prepreg autoclave and resin transfer moulding (RTM) process is investigated. The results show that the use of a carrier medium is a feasible way to incorporate the microcapsules into the laminate for all investigated manufacturing processes. Impact testing of these laminates shows a bruise formation on the specimen surface which correlates with the impact energy level. This indicates a microcapsule survival during processing and shows the potential of this technology for damage detection and characterization

Processing of microencapsulated dyes for the visual inspection of fibre reinforced plastics

Science.gov (United States)

Hopmann, Ch.; Kerschbaum, M.; Küsters, K.

2014-05-01

The evaluation of damages caused during processing, assembly or usage of fibre reinforced plastics is still a challenge. The use of inspection technology like ultrasonic scanning enables a detailed damage analysis but requires high investments and trained staff. Therefore, the visual inspection method is widely used. A drawback of this method is the difficult identification of barely visible damages, which can already be detrimental for the structural integrity. Therefore an approach is undertaken to integrate microencapsulated dyes into the laminates of fibre reinforced plastic parts to highlight damages on the surface. In case of a damage, the microcapsules rupture which leads to a release of the dye and a visible bruise on the part surface. To enable a wide application spectrum for this technology the microcapsules must be processable without rupturing with established manufacturing processes for fibre reinforced plastics. Therefore the incorporation of microcapsules in the filament winding, prepreg autoclave and resin transfer moulding (RTM) process is investigated. The results show that the use of a carrier medium is a feasible way to incorporate the microcapsules into the laminate for all investigated manufacturing processes. Impact testing of these laminates shows a bruise formation on the specimen surface which correlates with the impact energy level. This indicates a microcapsule survival during processing and shows the potential of this technology for damage detection and characterization.

Automated baseline change detection phase I. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-01

The Automated Baseline Change Detection (ABCD) project is supported by the DOE Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) as part of its ER&WM cross-cutting technology program in robotics. Phase 1 of the Automated Baseline Change Detection project is summarized in this topical report. The primary objective of this project is to apply robotic and optical sensor technology to the operational inspection of mixed toxic and radioactive waste stored in barrels, using Automated Baseline Change Detection (ABCD), based on image subtraction. Absolute change detection is based on detecting any visible physical changes, regardless of cause, between a current inspection image of a barrel and an archived baseline image of the same barrel. Thus, in addition to rust, the ABCD system can also detect corrosion, leaks, dents, and bulges. The ABCD approach and method rely on precise camera positioning and repositioning relative to the barrel and on feature recognition in images. In support of this primary objective, there are secondary objectives to determine DOE operational inspection requirements and DOE system fielding requirements.

Automated baseline change detection phase I. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-12-01

The Automated Baseline Change Detection (ABCD) project is supported by the DOE Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) as part of its ER ampersand WM cross-cutting technology program in robotics. Phase 1 of the Automated Baseline Change Detection project is summarized in this topical report. The primary objective of this project is to apply robotic and optical sensor technology to the operational inspection of mixed toxic and radioactive waste stored in barrels, using Automated Baseline Change Detection (ABCD), based on image subtraction. Absolute change detection is based on detecting any visible physical changes, regardless of cause, between a current inspection image of a barrel and an archived baseline image of the same barrel. Thus, in addition to rust, the ABCD system can also detect corrosion, leaks, dents, and bulges. The ABCD approach and method rely on precise camera positioning and repositioning relative to the barrel and on feature recognition in images. In support of this primary objective, there are secondary objectives to determine DOE operational inspection requirements and DOE system fielding requirements

Machine vision systems using machine learning for industrial product inspection

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yi; Chen, Tie Q.; Chen, Jie; Zhang, Jian; Tisler, Anthony

2002-02-01

Machine vision inspection requires efficient processing time and accurate results. In this paper, we present a machine vision inspection architecture, SMV (Smart Machine Vision). SMV decomposes a machine vision inspection problem into two stages, Learning Inspection Features (LIF), and On-Line Inspection (OLI). The LIF is designed to learn visual inspection features from design data and/or from inspection products. During the OLI stage, the inspection system uses the knowledge learnt by the LIF component to inspect the visual features of products. In this paper we will present two machine vision inspection systems developed under the SMV architecture for two different types of products, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and Vacuum Florescent Displaying (VFD) boards. In the VFD board inspection system, the LIF component learns inspection features from a VFD board and its displaying patterns. In the PCB board inspection system, the LIF learns the inspection features from the CAD file of a PCB board. In both systems, the LIF component also incorporates interactive learning to make the inspection system more powerful and efficient. The VFD system has been deployed successfully in three different manufacturing companies and the PCB inspection system is the process of being deployed in a manufacturing plant.

Automated TIG welding system with visual sensor for repairing nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inoue, Katsunori; Watanabe, Hiroshi; Kondoh, Yoshihide.

1986-01-01

An automated TIG welding system has been developed. This system is to be used for repairing nuclear plants, whose work environment is highly radioactive, so should have the automatic self control function and the remote controllable function. For this purpose, the visual sensor, a TV camera and an image processor, is installed and the image processing technique is applied to the all-position TIG welding system. In this system, all controls are made with microprocessors and every necessary information is displayed on the screen of the remote control unit. The excellent performance was obtained as the application of this system to the practical field. (author)

Integrating design and production planning with knowledge-based inspection planning system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbasi, Ghaleb Y.; Ketan, Hussein S.; Adil, Mazen B.

2005-01-01

In this paper an intelligent environment to integrate design and inspection earlier to the design stage. A hybrid knowledge-based approach integrating computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided inspection planning (CAIP) was developed, thereafter called computer-aided design and inspection planning (CADIP). CADIP was adopted for automated dimensional inspection planning. Critical functional features were screened based on certain attributes for part features for inspection planning application. Testing the model resulted in minimizing the number of probing vectors associated with the most important features in the inspected prismatic part, significant reduction in inspection costs and release of human labor. In totality, this tends to increase customer satisfaction as a final goal of the developed system. (author)

A fully-automated computer-assisted method of CT brain scan analysis for the measurement of cerebrospinal fluid spaces and brain absorption density

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baldy, R.E.; Brindley, G.S.; Jacobson, R.R.; Reveley, M.A.; Lishman, W.A.; Ewusi-Mensah, I.; Turner, S.W.

1986-01-01

Computer-assisted methods of CT brain scan analysis offer considerable advantages over visual inspection, particularly in research; and several semi-automated methods are currently available. A new computer-assisted program is presented which provides fully automated processing of CT brain scans, depending on ''anatomical knowledge'' of where cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-containing spaces are likely to lie. After identifying these regions of interest quantitative estimates are then provided of CSF content in each slice in cisterns, ventricles, Sylvian fissure and interhemispheric fissure. Separate measures are also provided of mean brain density in each slice. These estimates can be summated to provide total ventricular and total brain volumes. The program shows a high correlation with measures derived from mechanical planimetry and visual grading procedures, also when tested against a phantom brain of known ventricular volume. The advantages and limitations of the present program are discussed. (orig.)

Automation trust and attention allocation in multitasking workspace.

Science.gov (United States)

Karpinsky, Nicole D; Chancey, Eric T; Palmer, Dakota B; Yamani, Yusuke

2018-07-01

Previous research suggests that operators with high workload can distrust and then poorly monitor automation, which has been generally inferred from automation dependence behaviors. To test automation monitoring more directly, the current study measured operators' visual attention allocation, workload, and trust toward imperfect automation in a dynamic multitasking environment. Participants concurrently performed a manual tracking task with two levels of difficulty and a system monitoring task assisted by an unreliable signaling system. Eye movement data indicate that operators allocate less visual attention to monitor automation when the tracking task is more difficult. Participants reported reduced levels of trust toward the signaling system when the tracking task demanded more focused visual attention. Analyses revealed that trust mediated the relationship between the load of the tracking task and attention allocation in Experiment 1, an effect that was not replicated in Experiment 2. Results imply a complex process underlying task load, visual attention allocation, and automation trust during multitasking. Automation designers should consider operators' task load in multitasking workspaces to avoid reduced automation monitoring and distrust toward imperfect signaling systems. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bridging of inspection with corrosion management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zamaluddin Ali; Mohd Hawari Hassan; Rohana Jaafar

2009-01-01

Formerly, Inspection and Corrosion Engineers have less interaction and sharing of information to each other even they are working in the same plant or organization. Inspection finding either from visual inspection or NDT techniques rarely shared with corrosion engineers. Similarly corrosion engineers rarely discussed their corrosion prediction and potential damage mechanism with inspection engineers. A demanding request of more holistic plant safety and asset integrity promoted the introduction and implementation of Risk Based Inspection (RBI). RBI analysis demands the input mainly from both disciplines i.e. Inspection and Corrosion Engineers. Most of RBI methodologies are once-off analysis approach which also promoted once-off interaction between Inspection and Corrosion Engineers. PETRONAS has developed a methodology with supporting software, integrating both Inspection and Corrosion disciplines. PETRONAS Risk Based Inspection (PRBI) is intended to promote continuous integration of Inspection and Corrosion management of the plant through out the whole life cycle starting from the design stage to fabrication, operation and decommissions stage. (author)

Inspection of imprint lithography patterns for semiconductor and patterned media

Science.gov (United States)

Resnick, Douglas J.; Haase, Gaddi; Singh, Lovejeet; Curran, David; Schmid, Gerard M.; Luo, Kang; Brooks, Cindy; Selinidis, Kosta; Fretwell, John; Sreenivasan, S. V.

2010-03-01

Imprint lithography has been shown to be an effective technique for replication of nano-scale features. Acceptance of imprint lithography for manufacturing will require demonstration that it can attain defect levels commensurate with the requirements of cost-effective device production. This work summarizes the results of defect inspections of semiconductor masks, wafers and hard disks patterned using Jet and Flash Imprint Lithography (J-FILTM). Inspections were performed with optical and e-beam based automated inspection tools. For the semiconductor market, a test mask was designed which included dense features (with half pitches ranging between 32 nm and 48 nm) containing an extensive array of programmed defects. For this work, both e-beam inspection and optical inspection were used to detect both random defects and the programmed defects. Analytical SEMs were then used to review the defects detected by the inspection. Defect trends over the course of many wafers were observed with another test mask using a KLA-T 2132 optical inspection tool. The primary source of defects over 2000 imprints were particle related. For the hard drive market, it is important to understand the defectivity of both the template and the imprinted disk. This work presents a methodology for automated pattern inspection and defect classification for imprint-patterned media. Candela CS20 and 6120 tools from KLA-Tencor map the optical properties of the disk surface, producing highresolution grayscale images of surface reflectivity, scattered light, phase shift, etc. Defects that have been identified in this manner are further characterized according to the morphology

Development of digital radiographic inspection method in MINT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Ashhar Khalid; Abdul Razak Hamzah; Abdul Aziz Mohamad; Anuar Mikdad Muad; Nolida Yussup; Maslina Mohd Ibrahim

2002-01-01

Industrial radiography has been employed for the evaluation of defects, such as cracks, porosity and foreign inclusions found in casting and welds. It has become one of the major techniques in industrial non-destructive testing for the past 40 years. Although this technique has been well developed, further improvement can be implemented especially with the advancement of electronics and computer technology. Digital image processing techniques and application of artificial intelligence methods allow the interpretation of the image to be automated, avoiding the presence of human operators making the inspection system faster, more reliable and reproducible. Numerous works has been reported by various groups on the development of an automated, computer based evaluation algorithms. This paper reports the development and progress of digital radiographic inspection method in MINT. (Author)

Automation, Performance and International Competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kromann, Lene; Sørensen, Anders

This paper presents new evidence on trade‐induced automation in manufacturing firms using unique data combining a retrospective survey that we have assembled with register data for 2005‐2010. In particular, we establish a causal effect where firms that have specialized in product types for which...... the Chinese exports to the world market has risen sharply invest more in automated capital compared to firms that have specialized in other product types. We also study the relationship between automation and firm performance and find that firms with high increases in scale and scope of automation have faster...... productivity growth than other firms. Moreover, automation improves the efficiency of all stages of the production process by reducing setup time, run time, and inspection time and increasing uptime and quantity produced per worker. The efficiency improvement varies by type of automation....

Current automated 3D cell detection methods are not a suitable replacement for manual stereologic cell counting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christoph eSchmitz

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Stereologic cell counting has had a major impact on the field of neuroscience. A major bottleneck in stereologic cell counting is that the user must manually decide whether or not each cell is counted according to three-dimensional (3D stereologic counting rules by visual inspection within hundreds of microscopic fields-of-view per investigated brain or brain region. Reliance on visual inspection forces stereologic cell counting to be very labor-intensive and time-consuming, and is the main reason why biased, non-stereologic two-dimensional (2D cell counting approaches have remained in widespread use. We present an evaluation of the performance of modern automated cell detection and segmentation algorithms as a potential alternative to the manual approach in stereologic cell counting. The image data used in this study were 3D microscopic images of thick brain tissue sections prepared with a variety of commonly used nuclear and cytoplasmic stains. The evaluation compared the numbers and locations of cells identified unambiguously and counted exhaustively by an expert observer with those found by three automated 3D cell detection algorithms: nuclei segmentation from the FARSIGHT toolkit, nuclei segmentation by 3D multiple level set methods, and the 3D object counter plug-in for ImageJ. Of these methods, FARSIGHT performed best, with true-positive detection rates between 38–99% and false-positive rates from 3.6–82%. The results demonstrate that the current automated methods suffer from lower detection rates and higher false-positive rates than are acceptable for obtaining valid estimates of cell numbers. Thus, at present, stereologic cell counting with manual decision for object inclusion according to unbiased stereologic counting rules remains the only adequate method for unbiased cell quantification in histologic tissue sections.

Inter- and intra-observer agreement of BI-RADS-based subjective visual estimation of amount of fibroglandular breast tissue with magnetic resonance imaging: comparison to automated quantitative assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wengert, G.J.; Helbich, T.H.; Woitek, R.; Kapetas, P.; Clauser, P.; Baltzer, P.A.; Vogl, W.D.; Weber, M.; Meyer-Baese, A.; Pinker, Katja

2016-01-01

To evaluate the inter-/intra-observer agreement of BI-RADS-based subjective visual estimation of the amount of fibroglandular tissue (FGT) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to investigate whether FGT assessment benefits from an automated, observer-independent, quantitative MRI measurement by comparing both approaches. Eighty women with no imaging abnormalities (BI-RADS 1 and 2) were included in this institutional review board (IRB)-approved prospective study. All women underwent un-enhanced breast MRI. Four radiologists independently assessed FGT with MRI by subjective visual estimation according to BI-RADS. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurement of FGT with MRI was performed using a previously described measurement system. Inter-/intra-observer agreements of qualitative and quantitative FGT measurements were assessed using Cohen's kappa (k). Inexperienced readers achieved moderate inter-/intra-observer agreement and experienced readers a substantial inter- and perfect intra-observer agreement for subjective visual estimation of FGT. Practice and experience reduced observer-dependency. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurement of FGT was successfully performed and revealed only fair to moderate agreement (k = 0.209-0.497) with subjective visual estimations of FGT. Subjective visual estimation of FGT with MRI shows moderate intra-/inter-observer agreement, which can be improved by practice and experience. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurements of FGT are necessary to allow a standardized risk evaluation. (orig.)

Inter- and intra-observer agreement of BI-RADS-based subjective visual estimation of amount of fibroglandular breast tissue with magnetic resonance imaging: comparison to automated quantitative assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wengert, G.J.; Helbich, T.H.; Woitek, R.; Kapetas, P.; Clauser, P.; Baltzer, P.A. [Medical University of Vienna/ Vienna General Hospital, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging, Vienna (Austria); Vogl, W.D. [Medical University of Vienna, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Wien (Austria); Weber, M. [Medical University of Vienna, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Division of General and Pediatric Radiology, Wien (Austria); Meyer-Baese, A. [State University of Florida, Department of Scientific Computing in Medicine, Tallahassee, FL (United States); Pinker, Katja [Medical University of Vienna/ Vienna General Hospital, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging, Vienna (Austria); State University of Florida, Department of Scientific Computing in Medicine, Tallahassee, FL (United States); Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging and Therapy Services, New York City, NY (United States)

2016-11-15

To evaluate the inter-/intra-observer agreement of BI-RADS-based subjective visual estimation of the amount of fibroglandular tissue (FGT) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to investigate whether FGT assessment benefits from an automated, observer-independent, quantitative MRI measurement by comparing both approaches. Eighty women with no imaging abnormalities (BI-RADS 1 and 2) were included in this institutional review board (IRB)-approved prospective study. All women underwent un-enhanced breast MRI. Four radiologists independently assessed FGT with MRI by subjective visual estimation according to BI-RADS. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurement of FGT with MRI was performed using a previously described measurement system. Inter-/intra-observer agreements of qualitative and quantitative FGT measurements were assessed using Cohen's kappa (k). Inexperienced readers achieved moderate inter-/intra-observer agreement and experienced readers a substantial inter- and perfect intra-observer agreement for subjective visual estimation of FGT. Practice and experience reduced observer-dependency. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurement of FGT was successfully performed and revealed only fair to moderate agreement (k = 0.209-0.497) with subjective visual estimations of FGT. Subjective visual estimation of FGT with MRI shows moderate intra-/inter-observer agreement, which can be improved by practice and experience. Automated observer-independent quantitative measurements of FGT are necessary to allow a standardized risk evaluation. (orig.)

Inspection of disposal canisters components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pitkaenen, J.

2013-12-01

This report presents the inspection techniques of disposal canister components. Manufacturing methods and a description of the defects related to different manufacturing methods are described briefly. The defect types form a basis for the design of non-destructive testing because the defect types, which occur in the inspected components, affect to choice of inspection methods. The canister components are to nodular cast iron insert, steel lid, lid screw, metal gasket, copper tube with integrated or separate bottom, and copper lid. The inspection of copper material is challenging due to the anisotropic properties of the material and local changes in the grain size of the copper material. The cast iron insert has some acoustical material property variation (attenuation, velocity changes, scattering properties), which make the ultrasonic inspection demanding from calibration point of view. Mainly three different methods are used for inspection. Ultrasonic testing technique is used for inspection of volume, eddy current technique, for copper components only, and visual testing technique are used for inspection of the surface and near surface area

Sigma: computer vision in the service of safety and reliability in the inspection services; Sigma: la vision computacional al servicio de la seguridad y fiabilidad en los servicios de inspeccion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pineiro, P. J.; Mendez, M.; Garcia, A.; Cabrera, E.; Regidor, J. J.

2012-11-01

Vision Computing is growing very fast in the last decade with very efficient tools and algorithms. This allows new development of applications in the nuclear field providing more efficient equipment and tasks: redundant systems, vision-guided mobile robots, automated visual defects recognition, measurement, etc., In this paper Tecnatom describes a detailed example of visual computing application developed to provide secure redundant identification of the thousands of tubes existing in a power plant steam generator. some other on-going or planned visual computing projects by Tecnatom are also introduced. New possibilities of application in the inspection systems for nuclear components appear where the main objective is to maximize their reliability. (Author) 6 refs.

Automated ultrasonic examination of light water reactor systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walter, J.H.

1975-01-01

An automated ultrasonic examination system has been developed to meet the pre- and inservice inspection requirements of light water reactors. This system features remotely-controlled travelling instrument carriers, computerized collection and storage or inspection data in a manner providing real time comparison against code standards, and computer control over the positioning of the instrument carriers to provide precise location data. The system is currently being utilized in the field for a variety of reactor inspections. The principal features of the system and the recent inspection experience are discussed. (author)

Surface crack detection by magnetic particle inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goebbels, K.

1988-01-01

For ferromagnetic materials magnetic particle inspection is without doubt the most sensitive method to detect surface cracks and the least sensitive method referring to disturbing boundary conditions. Up to now the technique is based on experiments, experience, on empirical facts and on a subjective evaluation. This contribution for the first time presents a concept which allows the objective, reproducible as well as reliable magnetic particle inspection: Modelling of testing based on Maxwell's equations by finite element calculation; objective setting of test-parameters and their surveillance, handling systems, illumination and sensors, image processing and fully automated evaluation. Economy and safety of magnetic particle inspection are strongly improved by this procedure. (orig./HP) [de

Rolling ball sifting algorithm for the augmented visual inspection of carotid bruit auscultation

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Adam; Lee, Chung-Wei; Liu, Hon-Man

2016-07-01

Carotid bruits are systolic sounds associated with turbulent blood flow through atherosclerotic stenosis in the neck. They are audible intermittent high-frequency (above 200 Hz) sounds mixed with background noise and transmitted low-frequency (below 100 Hz) heart sounds that wax and wane periodically. It is a nontrivial task to extract both bruits and heart sounds with high fidelity for further computer-aided auscultation and diagnosis. In this paper we propose a rolling ball sifting algorithm that is capable to filter signals with a sharper frequency selectivity mechanism in the time domain. By rolling two balls (one above and one below the signal) of a suitable radius, the balls are large enough to roll over bruits and yet small enough to ride on heart sound waveforms. The high-frequency bruits can then be extracted according to a tangibility criterion by using the local extrema touched by the balls. Similarly, the low-frequency heart sounds can be acquired by a larger radius. By visualizing the periodicity information of both the extracted heart sounds and bruits, the proposed visual inspection method can potentially improve carotid bruit diagnosis accuracy.

Increasing reticle inspection efficiency and reducing wafer printchecks at 14nm using automated defect classification and simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Paracha, Shazad; Goodman, Eliot; Eynon, Benjamin G.; Noyes, Ben F.; Ha, Steven; Kim, Jong-Min; Lee, Dong-Seok; Lee, Dong-Heok; Cho, Sang-Soo; Ham, Young M.; Vacca, Anthony D.; Fiekowsky, Peter J.; Fiekowsky, Daniel I.

2014-10-01

IC fabs inspect critical masks on a regular basis to ensure high wafer yields. These requalification inspections are costly for many reasons including the capital equipment, system maintenance, and labor costs. In addition, masks typically remain in the "requal" phase for extended, non-productive periods of time. The overall "requal" cycle time in which reticles remain non-productive is challenging to control. Shipping schedules can slip when wafer lots are put on hold until the master critical layer reticle is returned to production. Unfortunately, substituting backup critical layer reticles can significantly reduce an otherwise tightly controlled process window adversely affecting wafer yields. One major requal cycle time component is the disposition process of mask inspections containing hundreds of defects. Not only is precious non-productive time extended by reviewing hundreds of potentially yield-limiting detections, each additional classification increases the risk of manual review techniques accidentally passing real yield limiting defects. Even assuming all defects of interest are flagged by operators, how can any person's judgment be confident regarding lithographic impact of such defects? The time reticles spend away from scanners combined with potential yield loss due to lithographic uncertainty presents significant cycle time loss and increased production costs An automatic defect analysis system (ADAS), which has been in fab production for numerous years, has been improved to handle the new challenges of 14nm node automate reticle defect classification by simulating each defect's printability under the intended illumination conditions. In this study, we have created programmed defects on a production 14nm node critical-layer reticle. These defects have been analyzed with lithographic simulation software and compared to the results of both AIMS optical simulation and to actual wafer prints.

Reliability of fully automated versus visually controlled pre- and post-processing of resting-state EEG.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatz, F; Hardmeier, M; Bousleiman, H; Rüegg, S; Schindler, C; Fuhr, P

2015-02-01

To compare the reliability of a newly developed Matlab® toolbox for the fully automated, pre- and post-processing of resting state EEG (automated analysis, AA) with the reliability of analysis involving visually controlled pre- and post-processing (VA). 34 healthy volunteers (age: median 38.2 (20-49), 82% female) had three consecutive 256-channel resting-state EEG at one year intervals. Results of frequency analysis of AA and VA were compared with Pearson correlation coefficients, and reliability over time was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Mean correlation coefficient between AA and VA was 0.94±0.07, mean ICC for AA 0.83±0.05 and for VA 0.84±0.07. AA and VA yield very similar results for spectral EEG analysis and are equally reliable. AA is less time-consuming, completely standardized, and independent of raters and their training. Automated processing of EEG facilitates workflow in quantitative EEG analysis. Copyright © 2014 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

49 CFR 213.333 - Automated vehicle inspection systems.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... applied (pounds). c = Coefficient of friction between rail/tie which is assigned a nominal value of (0.4... hours of the inspection, output reports that— (1) Provide a continuous plot, on a constant-distance axis... exception report containing a systematic listing of all track geometry conditions which constitute an...

Early detection of cervical cancer with visual inspection methods: a summary of completed and on-going studies in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sankaranarayanan R

2003-01-01

Full Text Available India is a high-risk country for cervical cancer which accounts a quarter (126 000 new cases, 71 000 deaths around 2 000 of the world burden. The age-standardized incidence rates range from 16-55 per 100 000 women in different regions with particularly high rates in rural areas. Control of cervical cancer by early detection and treatment is a priority of the National Cancer Control Programme of India. There are no organized cytology screening programmes in the country. The technical and financial constraints to organize cytology screening have encouraged the evaluation of visual inspection approaches as potential alternatives to cervical cytology in India. Four types of visual detection approaches for cervical neoplasia are investigated in India: a naked eye inspection without acetic acid application, widely known as 'downstaging'; b naked eye inspection after application of 3-5% acetic acid (VIA; c VIA using magnification devices (VIAM; d visual inspection after the application of Lugol's iodine (VILI. Downstaging has been shown to be poorly sensitive and specific to detect cervical neoplasia and is no longer considered as a suitable screening test for cervical cancer. VIA, VIAM and VILI are currently being investigated in multicentre cross-sectional studies (without verification bias, in which cytology and HPV testing are also simultaneously evaluated, and the results of these investigations will be available in 2003. These studies will provide valuable information on the average, comparative test performances in detecting high-grade cervical cancer precursors and cancer. Results from pooled analysis of data from two completed studies indicated an approximate sensitivity of 93.4% and specificity of 85.1% for VIA to detect CIN 2 or worse lesions; the corresponding figures for cytology were 72.1% and 91.6%. The efficacy of VIA in reducing incidence of and mortality from cervical cancer and its cost-effectiveness is currently being investigated

[18F]FMeNER-D2: Reliable fully-automated synthesis for visualization of the norepinephrine transporter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rami-Mark, Christina; Zhang, Ming-Rong; Mitterhauser, Markus; Lanzenberger, Rupert; Hacker, Marcus; Wadsak, Wolfgang

2013-01-01

Purpose: In neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders dysregulation of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) has been reported. For visualization of NET availability and occupancy in the human brain PET imaging can be used. Therefore, selective NET-PET tracers with high affinity are required. Amongst these, [ 18 F]FMeNER-D2 is showing the best results so far. Furthermore, a reliable fully automated radiosynthesis is a prerequisite for successful application of PET-tracers. The aim of this work was the automation of [ 18 F]FMeNER-D2 radiolabelling for subsequent clinical use. The presented study comprises 25 automated large-scale syntheses, which were directly applied to healthy volunteers and adult patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Procedures: Synthesis of [ 18 F]FMeNER-D2 was automated within a Nuclear Interface Module. Starting from 20–30 GBq [ 18 F]fluoride, azeotropic drying, reaction with Br 2 CD 2 , distillation of 1-bromo-2-[ 18 F]fluoromethane-D2 ([ 18 F]BFM) and reaction of the pure [ 18 F]BFM with unprotected precursor NER were optimized and completely automated. HPLC purification and SPE procedure were completed, formulation and sterile filtration were achieved on-line and full quality control was performed. Results: Purified product was obtained in a fully automated synthesis in clinical scale allowing maximum radiation safety and routine production under GMP-like manner. So far, more than 25 fully automated syntheses were successfully performed, yielding 1.0–2.5 GBq of formulated [ 18 F]FMeNER-D2 with specific activities between 430 and 1707 GBq/μmol within 95 min total preparation time. Conclusions: A first fully automated [ 18 F]FMeNER-D2 synthesis was established, allowing routine production of this NET-PET tracer under maximum radiation safety and standardization

[18F]FMeNER-D2: reliable fully-automated synthesis for visualization of the norepinephrine transporter.

Science.gov (United States)

Rami-Mark, Christina; Zhang, Ming-Rong; Mitterhauser, Markus; Lanzenberger, Rupert; Hacker, Marcus; Wadsak, Wolfgang

2013-11-01

In neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders dysregulation of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) has been reported. For visualization of NET availability and occupancy in the human brain PET imaging can be used. Therefore, selective NET-PET tracers with high affinity are required. Amongst these, [(18)F]FMeNER-D2 is showing the best results so far. Furthermore, a reliable fully automated radiosynthesis is a prerequisite for successful application of PET-tracers. The aim of this work was the automation of [(18)F]FMeNER-D2 radiolabelling for subsequent clinical use. The presented study comprises 25 automated large-scale syntheses, which were directly applied to healthy volunteers and adult patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Synthesis of [(18)F]FMeNER-D2 was automated within a Nuclear Interface Module. Starting from 20-30 GBq [(18)F]fluoride, azeotropic drying, reaction with Br2CD2, distillation of 1-bromo-2-[(18)F]fluoromethane-D2 ([(18)F]BFM) and reaction of the pure [(18)F]BFM with unprotected precursor NER were optimized and completely automated. HPLC purification and SPE procedure were completed, formulation and sterile filtration were achieved on-line and full quality control was performed. Purified product was obtained in a fully automated synthesis in clinical scale allowing maximum radiation safety and routine production under GMP-like manner. So far, more than 25 fully automated syntheses were successfully performed, yielding 1.0-2.5 GBq of formulated [(18)F]FMeNER-D2 with specific activities between 430 and 1707 GBq/μmol within 95 min total preparation time. A first fully automated [(18)F]FMeNER-D2 synthesis was established, allowing routine production of this NET-PET tracer under maximum radiation safety and standardization. © 2013.

Major challenges to scale up of visual inspection-based cervical cancer prevention programs: the experience of Guatemalan NGOs

OpenAIRE

Chary, Anita Nandkumar; Rohloff, Peter J

2014-01-01

ABSTRACT Background: Like many other low- and middle-income countries, Guatemala has adopted visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) as a low-resource alternative to the Pap smear for cervical cancer screening. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) introduced VIA to Guatemala in 2004, and a growing number of NGOs, working both independently and in collaboration with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health, employ VIA in cervical cancer prevention programs today. While much research describes VIA ef...

Optical Inspection In Hostile Industrial Environments: Single-Sensor VS. Imaging Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Cielo, P.; Dufour, M.; Sokalski, A.

1988-11-01

On-line and unsupervised industrial inspection for quality control and process monitoring is increasingly required in the modern automated factory. Optical techniques are particularly well suited to industrial inspection in hostile environments because of their noncontact nature, fast response time and imaging capabilities. Optical sensors can be used for remote inspection of high temperature products or otherwise inaccessible parts, provided they are in a line-of-sight relation with the sensor. Moreover, optical sensors are much easier to adapt to a variety of part shapes, position or orientation and conveyor speeds as compared to contact-based sensors. This is an important requirement in a flexible automation environment. A number of choices are possible in the design of optical inspection systems. General-purpose two-dimensional (2-D) or three-dimensional (3-D) imaging techniques have advanced very rapidly in the last years thanks to a substantial research effort as well as to the availability of increasingly powerful and affordable hardware and software. Imaging can be realized using 2-D arrays or simpler one-dimensional (1-D) line-array detectors. Alternatively, dedicated single-spot sensors require a smaller amount of data processing and often lead to robust sensors which are particularly appropriate to on-line operation in hostile industrial environments. Many specialists now feel that dedicated sensors or clusters of sensors are often more effective for specific industrial automation and control tasks, at least in the short run. This paper will discuss optomechanical and electro-optical choices with reference to the design of a number of on-line inspection sensors which have been recently developed at our institute. Case studies will include real-time surface roughness evaluation on polymer cables extruded at high speed, surface characterization of hot-rolled or galvanized-steel sheets, temperature evaluation and pinhole detection in aluminum foil, multi

Improvement of visualization efficiency for the nondestructive inspection image of internal defects in plate type nuclear fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Seung Kyu; Park, Nak Kyu; Baik, Sung Hoon; Lee, Yoon Sang; Cheong, Yong Moo; Kang, Young June

2012-01-01

signal processing is almost instantaneous. As a disadvantage, LIT is more sensitive to mechanic vibrations. So, in order to properly detect internal defects, several inspection parameters, such as acquisition time, processing methods, external stimulation, vibration environment etc., must be optimized when the assessment procedure is developed. If a current inspection image showing the information of internal defects is displayed on the monitor in real time, it will be helpful for the practical field application of nondestructive evaluations. For this purpose, a real time visualization technique for the detection of internal defects was developed in this paper. An active laser speckle interferometer with periodic thermal power was adopted to detect the defects. The laser speckle interferometer is sensitive to very small displacement at a resolution of nanometers by superposing the speckle patterns of two different object states. Amplitude and phase differences in deformation among intact and defective areas have been widely used for the detection of internal defects in plate specimens

Reducing uncertainty in wind turbine blade health inspection with image processing techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Huiyi

Structural health inspection has been widely applied in the operation of wind farms to find early cracks in wind turbine blades (WTBs). Increased numbers of turbines and expanded rotor diameters are driving up the workloads and safety risks for site employees. Therefore, it is important to automate the inspection process as well as minimize the uncertainties involved in routine blade health inspection. In addition, crack documentation and trending is vital to assess rotor blade and turbine reliability in the 20 year designed life span. A new crack recognition and classification algorithm is described that can support automated structural health inspection of the surface of large composite WTBs. The first part of the study investigated the feasibility of digital image processing in WTB health inspection and defined the capability of numerically detecting cracks as small as hairline thickness. The second part of the study identified and analyzed the uncertainty of the digital image processing method. A self-learning algorithm was proposed to recognize and classify cracks without comparing a blade image to a library of crack images. The last part of the research quantified the uncertainty in the field conditions and the image processing methods.

Overview of improvements in work practices and instrumentation for CANDU primary heat transport feeders in-service inspections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marcotte, O., E-mail: olivier@nucleom.ca [Nucleom Inc., Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Rousseau, G., E-mail: rousseau.gilles.a@hydro.qc.ca [Hydro Quebec, Becancour, Quebec (Canada); Rochefort, E., E-mail: erochfort@zetec.com [Zetec Canada, Quebec, Quebec (Canada)

2013-01-15

The Canadian nuclear industry has developed many advanced non-destructive inspection techniques to be applied safely in hazardous environments in recent years. Automated systems, manual tooling and specialized software modules have been designed since early 2000s to provide complete and very efficient fitness for service inspection of primary heat transport system carbon steel feeder pipes. These techniques deal with complex geometries, difficult access and, radioactive environment. Complementary NDE techniques, namely Ultrasounds, eddy current, phased-array UT and automated scanners are used. This presentation describes the improvements in inspection practices and the advanced data analysis features. (author)

Validation of Fourier decomposition MRI with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI using visual and automated scoring of pulmonary perfusion in young cystic fibrosis patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauman, Grzegorz; Puderbach, Michael; Heimann, Tobias; Kopp-Schneider, Annette; Fritzsching, Eva; Mall, Marcus A.; Eichinger, Monika

2013-01-01

Purpose: To validate Fourier decomposition (FD) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MR imaging. Materials and methods: Thirty-four CF patients (median age 4.08 years; range 0.16–30) were examined on a 1.5-T MR imager. For FD MR imaging, sets of lung images were acquired using an untriggered two-dimensional balanced steady-state free precession sequence. Perfusion-weighted images were obtained after correction of the breathing displacement and Fourier analysis of the cardiac frequency from the time-resolved data sets. DCE data sets were acquired with a three-dimensional gradient echo sequence. The FD and DCE images were visually assessed for perfusion defects by two readers independently (R1, R2) using a field based scoring system (0–12). Software was used for perfusion impairment evaluation (R3) of segmented lung images using an automated threshold. Both imaging and evaluation methods were compared for agreement and tested for concordance between FD and DCE imaging. Results: Good or acceptable intra-reader agreement was found between FD and DCE for visual and automated scoring: R1 upper and lower limits of agreement (ULA, LLA): 2.72, −2.5; R2: ULA, LLA: ±2.5; R3: ULA: 1.5, LLA: −2. A high concordance was found between visual and automated scoring (FD: 70–80%, DCE: 73–84%). Conclusions: FD MR imaging provides equivalent diagnostic information to DCE MR imaging in CF patients. Automated assessment of regional perfusion defects using FD and DCE MR imaging is comparable to visual scoring but allows for percentage-based analysis

Validation of Fourier decomposition MRI with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI using visual and automated scoring of pulmonary perfusion in young cystic fibrosis patients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bauman, Grzegorz, E-mail: g.bauman@dkfz.de [German Cancer Research Center, Division of Medical Physics in Radiology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 223, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany); Puderbach, Michael, E-mail: m.puderbach@dkfz.de [Chest Clinics at the University of Heidelberg, Clinics for Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology, Amalienstr. 5, 69126 Heidelberg (Germany); Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRC), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (Germany); Heimann, Tobias, E-mail: t.heimann@dkfz.de [German Cancer Research Center, Division of Medical and Biological Informatics, Im Neuenheimer Feld 223, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany); Kopp-Schneider, Annette, E-mail: kopp@dkfz.de [German Cancer Research Center, Division of Biostatistics, Im Neuenheimer Feld 223, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany); Fritzsching, Eva, E-mail: eva.fritzsching@med.uni-heidelberg.de [University Hospital Heidelberg, Department of Translational Pulmonology and Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy and Cystic Fibrosis Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 430, Heidelberg (Germany); Mall, Marcus A., E-mail: marcus.mall@med.uni-heidelberg.de [Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRC), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (Germany); University Hospital Heidelberg, Department of Translational Pulmonology and Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy and Cystic Fibrosis Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 430, Heidelberg (Germany); Eichinger, Monika, E-mail: m.eichinger@dkfz.de [Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRC), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (Germany); German Cancer Research Center, Division of Radiology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 223, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany)

2013-12-01

Purpose: To validate Fourier decomposition (FD) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MR imaging. Materials and methods: Thirty-four CF patients (median age 4.08 years; range 0.16–30) were examined on a 1.5-T MR imager. For FD MR imaging, sets of lung images were acquired using an untriggered two-dimensional balanced steady-state free precession sequence. Perfusion-weighted images were obtained after correction of the breathing displacement and Fourier analysis of the cardiac frequency from the time-resolved data sets. DCE data sets were acquired with a three-dimensional gradient echo sequence. The FD and DCE images were visually assessed for perfusion defects by two readers independently (R1, R2) using a field based scoring system (0–12). Software was used for perfusion impairment evaluation (R3) of segmented lung images using an automated threshold. Both imaging and evaluation methods were compared for agreement and tested for concordance between FD and DCE imaging. Results: Good or acceptable intra-reader agreement was found between FD and DCE for visual and automated scoring: R1 upper and lower limits of agreement (ULA, LLA): 2.72, −2.5; R2: ULA, LLA: ±2.5; R3: ULA: 1.5, LLA: −2. A high concordance was found between visual and automated scoring (FD: 70–80%, DCE: 73–84%). Conclusions: FD MR imaging provides equivalent diagnostic information to DCE MR imaging in CF patients. Automated assessment of regional perfusion defects using FD and DCE MR imaging is comparable to visual scoring but allows for percentage-based analysis.

Cerebral perfusion and automated individual analysis using SPECT among an obsessive-compulsive population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Euclides Timóteo da Rocha

2011-01-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To make individual assessments using automated quantification methodology in order to screen for perfusion abnormalities in cerebral SPECT examinations among a sample of subjects with OCD. METHODS: Statistical parametric mapping (SPM was used to compare 26 brain SPECT images from patients with OCD individually with an image bank of 32 normal subjects, using the statistical threshold of p < 0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons at the level of individual voxels or clusters. The maps were analyzed, and regions presenting voxels that remained above this threshold were sought. RESULTS: Six patients from a sample of 26 OCD images showed abnormalities at cluster or voxel level, considering the criteria described above, which represented 23.07%. However, seven images from the normal group of 32 were also indicated as cases of perfusional abnormality, representing 21.8% of the sample. CONCLUSION: The automated quantification method was not considered to be a useful tool for clinical practice, for analyses complementary to visual inspection.

RBioplot: an easy-to-use R pipeline for automated statistical analysis and data visualization in molecular biology and biochemistry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Zhang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background Statistical analysis and data visualization are two crucial aspects in molecular biology and biology. For analyses that compare one dependent variable between standard (e.g., control and one or multiple independent variables, a comprehensive yet highly streamlined solution is valuable. The computer programming language R is a popular platform for researchers to develop tools that are tailored specifically for their research needs. Here we present an R package RBioplot that takes raw input data for automated statistical analysis and plotting, highly compatible with various molecular biology and biochemistry lab techniques, such as, but not limited to, western blotting, PCR, and enzyme activity assays. Method The package is built based on workflows operating on a simple raw data layout, with minimum user input or data manipulation required. The package is distributed through GitHub, which can be easily installed through one single-line R command. A detailed installation guide is available at http://kenstoreylab.com/?page_id=2448. Users can also download demo datasets from the same website. Results and Discussion By integrating selected functions from existing statistical and data visualization packages with extensive customization, RBioplot features both statistical analysis and data visualization functionalities. Key properties of RBioplot include: -Fully automated and comprehensive statistical analysis, including normality test, equal variance test, Student’s t-test and ANOVA (with post-hoc tests; -Fully automated histogram, heatmap and joint-point curve plotting modules; -Detailed output files for statistical analysis, data manipulation and high quality graphs; -Axis range finding and user customizable tick settings; -High user-customizability.

Eddy current technique applied to automated tube profilometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dobbeni, D.; Melsen, C. van

1982-01-01

The use of eddy current methods in the first totally automated pre-service inspection of the internal diameter of PWR steam generator tubes is described. The technique was developed at Laborelec, the Belgian Laboratory of the Electricity Supply Industry. Details are given of the data acquisition system and of the automated manipulator. Representative tube profiles are illustrated. (U.K.)

Innovative Ultrasonic Testing (UT) of nuclear components by sampling phased array with 3D visualization of inspection results

OpenAIRE

Pudovikov, Sergey; Bulavinov, Andrey; Pinchuk, Roman

2011-01-01

Unlike other industrial branches, nuclear industry - when performing UT- is not only asking for a reliable detection, but also for an exact sizing of material defects. Under these objectives ultrasonic imaging plays an important role in practical testing of nuclear components in the data evaluation process as well as for documentation of the inspection results. 2D and 3D sound-field steering by means of phased array technology offers great opportunities for spatially correct visualization of ...

Linking Automated Data Analysis and Visualization with Applications in Developmental Biology and High-Energy Physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruebel, Oliver [Technical Univ. of Darmstadt (Germany)

2009-11-20

Knowledge discovery from large and complex collections of today's scientific datasets is a challenging task. With the ability to measure and simulate more processes at increasingly finer spatial and temporal scales, the increasing number of data dimensions and data objects is presenting tremendous challenges for data analysis and effective data exploration methods and tools. Researchers are overwhelmed with data and standard tools are often insufficient to enable effective data analysis and knowledge discovery. The main objective of this thesis is to provide important new capabilities to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery form large, complex, and multivariate scientific data. The research covered in this thesis addresses these scientific challenges using a combination of scientific visualization, information visualization, automated data analysis, and other enabling technologies, such as efficient data management. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis methods is demonstrated via applications in two distinct scientific research fields, namely developmental biology and high-energy physics.Advances in microscopy, image analysis, and embryo registration enable for the first time measurement of gene expression at cellular resolution for entire organisms. Analysis of high-dimensional spatial gene expression datasets is a challenging task. By integrating data clustering and visualization, analysis of complex, time-varying, spatial gene expression patterns and their formation becomes possible. The analysis framework MATLAB and the visualization have been integrated, making advanced analysis tools accessible to biologist and enabling bioinformatic researchers to directly integrate their analysis with the visualization. Laser wakefield particle accelerators (LWFAs) promise to be a new compact source of high-energy particles and radiation, with wide applications ranging from medicine to physics. To gain insight into the complex physical processes of particle

Linking Automated Data Analysis and Visualization with Applications in Developmental Biology and High-Energy Physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruebel, Oliver

2009-01-01

Knowledge discovery from large and complex collections of today's scientific datasets is a challenging task. With the ability to measure and simulate more processes at increasingly finer spatial and temporal scales, the increasing number of data dimensions and data objects is presenting tremendous challenges for data analysis and effective data exploration methods and tools. Researchers are overwhelmed with data and standard tools are often insufficient to enable effective data analysis and knowledge discovery. The main objective of this thesis is to provide important new capabilities to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery form large, complex, and multivariate scientific data. The research covered in this thesis addresses these scientific challenges using a combination of scientific visualization, information visualization, automated data analysis, and other enabling technologies, such as efficient data management. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis methods is demonstrated via applications in two distinct scientific research fields, namely developmental biology and high-energy physics.Advances in microscopy, image analysis, and embryo registration enable for the first time measurement of gene expression at cellular resolution for entire organisms. Analysis of high-dimensional spatial gene expression datasets is a challenging task. By integrating data clustering and visualization, analysis of complex, time-varying, spatial gene expression patterns and their formation becomes possible. The analysis framework MATLAB and the visualization have been integrated, making advanced analysis tools accessible to biologist and enabling bioinformatic researchers to directly integrate their analysis with the visualization. Laser wakefield particle accelerators (LWFAs) promise to be a new compact source of high-energy particles and radiation, with wide applications ranging from medicine to physics. To gain insight into the complex physical processes of particle

Visual inspection system and sipping design for spent fuel at TRIGA MARK III reactor of Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delfin, A.; Mazon, R.

2002-01-01

In the framework of the Technical Cooperation Regional Project for Latin America RLA/4/018 for the biennium 2001-2002, one of the activities identified is the characterization of spent fuel. Of these activities an important one is not doubt the physical condition of spent fuel because an appropriate identification of the fuel status will prevent problems of fuel leaks, corrosion problems etc. As part of the activities of the project was decided that countries no having visual inspection and sipping systems should be very desirable to have them as a result of this project. The Triga reactor of Mexico does not have both of them, therefore, it was decided the need of having both system. The paper describe first the way we designed and constructed a remote Visual Inspection System and example of how is operated. Along the experience and problems we have had with the system. Also we will present the design of the Sipping system were two option were considered. First to take a sample of water after a convenient period of time passing through a circuit to a multichannel analyzer and to identify leakage by way of measuring Caesium-137. Second, exists the possibility that the Stainless Steel sleeve of the fuel has only very small failures, so it is going to be very difficult to have leakages unless the fuel is hot. Therefore we are evaluating the possibility of using heaters to increase the temperature of the fuel and succeed on detecting leakages. The results - we hope - will be ready to be presented at the meeting. (author)

Visual Versus Fully Automated Analyses of 18F-FDG and Amyloid PET for Prediction of Dementia Due to Alzheimer Disease in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimmer, Timo; Wutz, Carolin; Alexopoulos, Panagiotis; Drzezga, Alexander; Förster, Stefan; Förstl, Hans; Goldhardt, Oliver; Ortner, Marion; Sorg, Christian; Kurz, Alexander

2016-02-01

Biomarkers of Alzheimer disease (AD) can be imaged in vivo and can be used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in people with cognitive decline and dementia. Indicators of amyloid deposition such as (11)C-Pittsburgh compound B ((11)C-PiB) PET are primarily used to identify or rule out brain diseases that are associated with amyloid pathology but have also been deployed to forecast the clinical course. Indicators of neuronal metabolism including (18)F-FDG PET demonstrate the localization and severity of neuronal dysfunction and are valuable for differential diagnosis and for predicting the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia. It is a matter of debate whether to analyze these images visually or using automated techniques. Therefore, we compared the usefulness of both imaging methods and both analyzing strategies to predict dementia due to AD. In MCI participants, a baseline examination, including clinical and imaging assessments, and a clinical follow-up examination after a planned interval of 24 mo were performed. Of 28 MCI patients, 9 developed dementia due to AD, 2 developed frontotemporal dementia, and 1 developed moderate dementia of unknown etiology. The positive and negative predictive values and the accuracy of visual and fully automated analyses of (11)C-PiB for the prediction of progression to dementia due to AD were 0.50, 1.00, and 0.68, respectively, for the visual and 0.53, 1.00, and 0.71, respectively, for the automated analyses. Positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of fully automated analyses of (18)F-FDG PET were 0.37, 0.78, and 0.50, respectively. Results of visual analyses were highly variable between raters but were superior to automated analyses. Both (18)F-FDG and (11)C-PiB imaging appear to be of limited use for predicting the progression from MCI to dementia due to AD in short-term follow-up, irrespective of the strategy of analysis. On the other hand, amyloid PET is extremely useful to

Steam Generator Inspection Planning Expert System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rzasa, P.

1987-01-01

Applying Artificial Intelligence technology to steam generator non-destructive examination (NDE) can help identify high risk locations in steam generators and can aid in preparing technical specification compliant eddy current test (ECT) programs. A steam Generator Inspection Planning Expert System has been developed which can assist NDE or utility personnel in planning ECT programs. This system represents and processes its information using an object oriented declarative knowledge base, heuristic rules, and symbolic information processing, three artificial intelligence based techniques incorporated in the design. The output of the system is an automated generation of ECT programs. Used in an outage inspection, this system significantly reduced planning time

Remotely-operated equipment for inspection, measurement and handling

CERN Document Server

Bertone, C; CERN. Geneva. TS Department

2008-01-01

As part of the application of ALARA radiation dose reduction principles at CERN, inspection, measurement and handling interventions in controlled areas are being studied in detail. A number of activities which could be carried out as remote operations have already been identified and equipment is being developed. Example applications include visual inspection to check for ice formation on LHC components or water leaks, measurement of radiation levels before allowing personnel access, measurement of collimator or magnet alignment, visual inspection or measurements before fire service access in the event of fire, gas leak or oxygen deficiency. For these applications, a modular monorail train, TIM, has been developed with inspection and measurement wagons. In addition TIM provides traction, power and data communication for lifting and handling units such as the remote collimator exchange module and vision for other remotely operated units such as the TAN detector exchange mini-cranes. This paper describes the eq...

In-service inspection guidelines for composite aerospace structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heida, Jaap H.; Platenkamp, Derk J.

2012-01-01

The in-service inspection of composite aerospace structures is reviewed, using the results of a evaluation of promising, mobile non-destructive inspection (NDI) methods. The evaluation made use of carbon fibre reinforced specimens representative for primary composite aerospace structures, including relevant damage types such as impact damage, delaminations and disbonds. A range of NDI methods were evaluated such as visual inspection, vibration analysis, phased array ultrasonic inspection, shearography and thermography inspection. Important aspects of the evaluation were the capability for defect detection and characterization, portability of equipment, field of view, couplant requirements, speed of inspection, level of training required and the cost of equipment. The paper reviews the damage tolerance design approach for composites, and concludes with guidelines for the in-service inspection of composite aerospace structures.

PF-WFS Shell Inspection Update December 2016

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vigil, Anthony Eugene [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Ledoux, Reina Rebecca [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Gonzales, Antonio R. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Montano, Joshua Daniel [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Savage, Lowell Curtis [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Randles, Wayne Alfred [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-01-26

Since the last project update in FY16:Q2, PF-WFS personnel have advanced in understanding of shell inspection on Coordinate Measuring Machines {CMM} and refined the PF-WFS process to the point it was decided to convert shell inspection from the Sheffield #1 gage to Lietz CM Ms. As a part of introspection on the quality of this process many sets of data have been reviewed and analyzed. This analysis included Sheffield to CMM comparisons, CMM inspection repeatability, fixturing differences, quality check development, probing approach changes. This update report will touch on these improvements that have built the confidence in this process to mainstream it inspecting shells. In addition to the CMM programming advancements, the continuation in refinement of input and outputs for the CMM program has created an archiving scheme, input spline files, an output metafile, and inspection report package. This project will continue to mature. Part designs may require program modifications to accommodate "new to this process" part designs. Technology limitations tied to security and performance are requiring possible changes to computer configurations to support an automated process.

Automated ultrasonic inspection of IGSCC in DOE production reactor process water piping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harrison, J.M.; Sprayberry, R.; Ehrhart, W.

1987-01-01

Inspection of nuclear power components has always presented difficulties to the nondestructive testing (NDT) industry from a time consumption and radiation exposure standpoint. Recent advances in computerized NDT equipment have improved the situation to some extent; however, the need for high reliability, precision, reproducibility, and clear permanent documentation are indispensable requirements that can only be met by automatic inspection and recording systems. The Savannah River Plant's inspection program of over 1000 IGSCC-susceptible welds is one of the most complete in the country and offers educational insight into ultrasonic examination technology of thin-wall stainless steel pipe welds

Development of innovative inspection tools for higher reliability of PHWR fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamalesh Kumar, B.; Viswanathan, B.; Laxminarayana, B.; Ganguly, C.

2003-01-01

'Full text:' Advent of Computer aided manufacturing systems has led to very high rate of production with greater reliability. The conventional inspection tools and systems, which are often manual based do not complement with output of highly automated production line. In order to overcome the deficiency, a strategic plan was developed for having automated inspection facility for PHWR fuel assembly line. Laser based systems with their inherently high accuracy and quick response times are a favorite for metrology purpose. Non-contact nature of laser-based measurement ensures minimal contamination, low wear and tear and good repeatability. So far two laser-based systems viz. Pellet density measurement systems and triangulation sensors have been developed. Laser based fuel pellet inspection system and PHWR fuel bundle metric station are under development. Machine vision-based systems have been developed to overcome certain limitations when inspection has to be carried out on such a large scale manually. These deficiencies arise from limitations of resolution, accessibility, fatigue and absence of quantification ability. These problems get further compounded in inspection of fuel components because of their relatively small sizes, close tolerances required and the reflective surfaces. PC based vision system has been developed for inspecting components and fuel assemblies. The paper would touch upon the details of the various laser systems and vision systems that have been indigenously developed for PHWR Fuel Metrology and their impact on the assembly production line. (author)

Merge Fuzzy Visual Servoing and GPS-Based Planning to Obtain a Proper Navigation Behavior for a Small Crop-Inspection Robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Bengochea-Guevara, José M; Conesa-Muñoz, Jesus; Andújar, Dionisio; Ribeiro, Angela

2016-02-24

The concept of precision agriculture, which proposes farming management adapted to crop variability, has emerged in recent years. To effectively implement precision agriculture, data must be gathered from the field in an automated manner at minimal cost. In this study, a small autonomous field inspection vehicle was developed to minimise the impact of the scouting on the crop and soil compaction. The proposed approach integrates a camera with a GPS receiver to obtain a set of basic behaviours required of an autonomous mobile robot to inspect a crop field with full coverage. A path planner considered the field contour and the crop type to determine the best inspection route. An image-processing method capable of extracting the central crop row under uncontrolled lighting conditions in real time from images acquired with a reflex camera positioned on the front of the robot was developed. Two fuzzy controllers were also designed and developed to achieve vision-guided navigation. A method for detecting the end of a crop row using camera-acquired images was developed. In addition, manoeuvres necessary for the robot to change rows were established. These manoeuvres enabled the robot to autonomously cover the entire crop by following a previously established plan and without stepping on the crop row, which is an essential behaviour for covering crops such as maize without damaging them.

Toward fully automated genotyping: Genotyping microsatellite markers by deconvolution

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perlin, M.W.; Lancia, G.; See-Kiong, Ng [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

1995-11-01

Dense genetic linkage maps have been constructed for the human and mouse genomes, with average densities of 2.9 cM and 0.35 cM, respectively. These genetic maps are crucial for mapping both Mendelian and complex traits and are useful in clinical genetic diagnosis. Current maps are largely comprised of abundant, easily assayed, and highly polymorphic PCR-based microsatellite markers, primarily dinucleotide (CA){sub n} repeats. One key limitation of these length polymorphisms is the PCR stutter (or slippage) artifact that introduces additional stutter bands. With two (or more) closely spaced alleles, the stutter bands overlap, and it is difficult to accurately determine the correct alleles; this stutter phenomenon has all but precluded full automation, since a human must visually inspect the allele data. We describe here novel deconvolution methods for accurate genotyping that mathematically remove PCR stutter artifact from microsatellite markers. These methods overcome the manual interpretation bottleneck and thereby enable full automation of genetic map construction and use. New functionalities, including the pooling of DNAs and the pooling of markers, are described that may greatly reduce the associated experimentation requirements. 32 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

[{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2: Reliable fully-automated synthesis for visualization of the norepinephrine transporter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rami-Mark, Christina [Radiochemistry and Biomarker Development Unit, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna (Austria); Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Vienna (Austria); Zhang, Ming-Rong [Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan); Mitterhauser, Markus [Radiochemistry and Biomarker Development Unit, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna (Austria); Hospital Pharmacy of the General Hospital of Vienna (Austria); Lanzenberger, Rupert [Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna (Austria); Hacker, Marcus [Radiochemistry and Biomarker Development Unit, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna (Austria); Wadsak, Wolfgang [Radiochemistry and Biomarker Development Unit, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna (Austria); Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Vienna (Austria)

2013-11-15

Purpose: In neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders dysregulation of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) has been reported. For visualization of NET availability and occupancy in the human brain PET imaging can be used. Therefore, selective NET-PET tracers with high affinity are required. Amongst these, [{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2 is showing the best results so far. Furthermore, a reliable fully automated radiosynthesis is a prerequisite for successful application of PET-tracers. The aim of this work was the automation of [{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2 radiolabelling for subsequent clinical use. The presented study comprises 25 automated large-scale syntheses, which were directly applied to healthy volunteers and adult patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Procedures: Synthesis of [{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2 was automated within a Nuclear Interface Module. Starting from 20–30 GBq [{sup 18}F]fluoride, azeotropic drying, reaction with Br{sub 2}CD{sub 2}, distillation of 1-bromo-2-[{sup 18}F]fluoromethane-D2 ([{sup 18}F]BFM) and reaction of the pure [{sup 18}F]BFM with unprotected precursor NER were optimized and completely automated. HPLC purification and SPE procedure were completed, formulation and sterile filtration were achieved on-line and full quality control was performed. Results: Purified product was obtained in a fully automated synthesis in clinical scale allowing maximum radiation safety and routine production under GMP-like manner. So far, more than 25 fully automated syntheses were successfully performed, yielding 1.0–2.5 GBq of formulated [{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2 with specific activities between 430 and 1707 GBq/μmol within 95 min total preparation time. Conclusions: A first fully automated [{sup 18}F]FMeNER-D2 synthesis was established, allowing routine production of this NET-PET tracer under maximum radiation safety and standardization.

ALS insertion device block measurement and inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marks, S.; Carrieri, J.; Cook, C.; Hassenzahl, W.V.; Hoyer, E.; Plate, D.

1991-05-01

The performance specifications for ALS insertion devices require detailed knowledge and strict control of the Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet blocks incorporated in these devices. This paper describes the measurement and inspection apparatus and the procedures designed to qualify and characterize these blocks. A detailed description of a new, automated Helmholtz coil facility for measurement of the three components of magnetic moment is included. Physical block inspection and magnetic moment measurement procedures are described. Together they provide a basis for qualifying blocks and for specifying placement of blocks within an insertion devices' magnetic structures. 1 ref., 4 figs

Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy as method of choice for non-invasive and automated detection of microbial growth in media fills.

Science.gov (United States)

Brueckner, David; Roesti, David; Zuber, Ulrich; Sacher, Meik; Duncan, Derek; Krähenbühl, Stephan; Braissant, Olivier

2017-05-15

Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) was evaluated on its potential to detect bacterial growth of contaminated media fill vials. The target was a replacement/ automation of the traditional visual media fill inspection. TDLAS was used to determine non-invasively O 2 and/or CO 2 changes in headspaces of such vials being induced by metabolically active microorganisms. Four different vial formats, 34 microorganisms (inoculation volume<10 cells) and two different media (TSB/FTM) were tested. Applying parallel CO 2 and O 2 headspace measurements all format-organism combinations were detected within <11 days reliably with reproducible results. False negatives were exclusively observed for samples that were intentionally breached with syringes of 0.3mm in diameter. Overall it was shown that TDLAS functionality for a replacement of the visual media fill inspection is given and that investing in further validation and implementation studies is valuable. Nevertheless, some small but vincible challenges remain to have this technology in practical use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inspection of the Sizewll 'B' reactor coolant pump flywheels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McNulty, A.L.; Cheshire, A.

1992-01-01

The Sizewell ''B'' safety case has categorised some primary circuit items as components for which failure is considered to be incredible. These Incredibility of Failure (IOF) components are particularly critical in their safety function, and specially stringent and all embracing provisions are made in their design, manufacture, inspection and operation. These provisions are such as to limit the probability of failure to levels which are so low that it does not have to be taken into account and no steps are necessary to control the consequences. The reactor coolant pump flywheel is considered to be an IOF component. Consequently there is a need for rigorous inspection during both manufacture and in service (ISI). The ISI requirement results in the need for an automated inspection. There is therefore a prerequisite to perform a Pre-Service Inspection (PSI) for baseline fingerprinting purposes. Furthermore there is a requirement that the inspection procedure, the inspection equipment and the operators are validated at the Inspection Validation Centre (IVC) of the AEA Technology laboratories at Risley. Development work is described. (author)

Container Inspection Utilizing 14 MeV Neutrons

Science.gov (United States)

Valkovic, Vladivoj; Sudac, Davorin; Nad, Karlo; Obhodas, Jasmina

2016-06-01

A proposal for an autonomous and flexible ship container inspection system is presented. This could be accomplished by the incorporation of an inspection system on various container transportation devices (straddle carriers, yard gentry cranes, automated guided vehicles, trailers). The configuration is terminal specific and it should be defined by the container terminal operator. This enables that no part of the port operational area is used for inspection. The inspection scenario includes container transfer from ship to transportation device with the inspection unit mounted on it. The inspection is performed during actual container movement to the container location. A neutron generator without associated alpha particle detection is used. This allows the use of higher neutron intensities (5 × 109 - 1010 n/s in 4π). The inspected container is stationary in the “inspection position” on the transportation device while the “inspection unit” moves along its side. The following analytical methods will be used simultaneously: neutron radiography, X-ray radiography, neutron activation analysis, (n, γ) and (n,n'γ) reactions, neutron absorption. and scattering, X-ray backscattering. The neutron techniques will utilize “smart collimators” for neutrons and gamma rays, both emitted and detected. The inspected voxel is defined by the intersection of the neutron generator and the detectors solid angles. The container inspection protocol is based on identification of discrepancies between the cargo manifest, elemental “fingerprint” and radiography profiles. In addition, the information on container weight is obtained during the container transport and screening by measuring of density of material in the container.

Development of in-service inspection system for core support graphite structures in the high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sumita, Junya; Hanawa, Satoshi; Kikuchi, Takayuki; Ishihara, Masahiro [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Oarai, Ibaraki (Japan). Oarai Research Establishment

2003-03-01

Visual inspection of core support graphite structures using TV camera as in-service inspection and measurement of material characteristics using surveillance test specimens are planned in the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) to confirm structural integrity of the core support graphite structures. For the visual inspection, in-service inspection system developed from September 1996 to June 1998, and pre-service inspection using the system was carried out. As the result of the pre-service inspection, it was validated that high quality of visual inspection with TV camera can be carried out, and also structural integrity of the core support graphite structures at the initial stage of the HTTR operation was confirmed. (author)

Experience of in-cell visual inspection using CCD camera in hot cell of Reprocessing Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reddy, Padi Srinivas; Amudhu Ramesh Kumar, R.; Geo Mathews, M.; Ravisankar, A.

2013-01-01

This paper describes the selection, customization and operating experience of the visual inspection system for the hot cell of a Reprocessing Plant. For process equipment such as fuel chopping machine, dissolver, centrifuge, centrifugal extractors etc., viewing of operations and maintenance using manipulators is required. For this, the service of in-cell camera is essential. The ambience of the hot cell of Compact facility for Reprocessing of Advanced fuels in Lead cell (CORAL) for the reprocessing of fast reactor spent fuel has high gamma radiation and acidic vapors. Black and white Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera has been used in CORAL incorporating in-house modifications to suit the operating ambient conditions, thereby extending the operating life of the camera. (author)

Flow visualization

CERN Document Server

Merzkirch, Wolfgang

1974-01-01

Flow Visualization describes the most widely used methods for visualizing flows. Flow visualization evaluates certain properties of a flow field directly accessible to visual perception. Organized into five chapters, this book first presents the methods that create a visible flow pattern that could be investigated by visual inspection, such as simple dye and density-sensitive visualization methods. It then deals with the application of electron beams and streaming birefringence. Optical methods for compressible flows, hydraulic analogy, and high-speed photography are discussed in other cha

IBM Watson Analytics: Automating Visualization, Descriptive, and Predictive Statistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoyt, Robert Eugene; Snider, Dallas; Thompson, Carla; Mantravadi, Sarita

2016-10-11

. IBMWA is a new alternative for data analytics software that automates descriptive, predictive, and visual analytics. This program is very user-friendly but requires data preprocessing, statistical conceptual understanding, and domain expertise.

Procedures and acceptance criteria for PAS-1 cask inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mercado, J.E.

1998-01-01

The procedures and acceptance criteria that comprise this document were prepared to support a one-time test to certify two PAS-1 casks in accordance with US Department of Energy Certificate of Compliance US A/9184/B(U), which was issued in 1998. The specific inspections addressed in this document are the visual weld inspection and a dimensional inspection of the primary containment vessel

241-AY-102 Leak Detection Pit Drain Line Inspection Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boomer, Kayle D.; Engeman, Jason K.; Gunter, Jason R.; Joslyn, Cameron C.; Vazquez, Brandon J.; Venetz, Theodore J.; Garfield, John S.

2014-01-01

This document provides a description of the design components, operational approach, and results from the Tank AY-102 leak detection pit drain piping visual inspection. To perform this inspection a custom robotic crawler with a deployment device was designed, built, and operated by IHI Southwest Technologies, Inc. for WRPS to inspect the 6-inch leak detection pit drain line

Comparison of API 510 pressure vessels inspection planning with API 581 risk-based inspection planning approaches

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shishesaz, Mohammad Reza; Nazarnezhad Bajestani, Mohammad; Hashemi, Seyed Javad; Shekari, Elahe

2013-01-01

To ensure mechanical integrity, all pressure vessels shall be inspected at the intervals provided in inspection codes or based on a risk-based inspection (RBI) assessment. The RBI assessment may allow previously established inspection intervals to be extended. This paper describes the methodology, analysis and results of two RBI studies conducted on 293 pressure vessel components in two crude oil distillation units. Based on API RBI methodology in API 581 (2008), risk target concept was used for determining inspection dates. It was shown that when thinning is the major active damage, the RBI recommended intervals are as long as twice the API 510 intervals. This paper summarizes that, as a fundamental step in the risk calculation, RBI has a more defined methodology for evaluating equipment for multiple damage mechanisms and a more defined approach to specify the use of other inspection technologies beyond the traditional visual, ultrasonic, and radiography tests. -- Highlights: • RBI calculated inspection intervals are as long as twice of API 510 inspection code. • Two case studies verified the advantage of RBI in inspection planning. • RBI is a more reliable methodology when evaluating multiple damage mechanisms. • Damage factor calculations can be used for determining RSFa value in FFS assessments

Handling system for nuclear fuel pellet inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyman, D.H.; McLemore, D.R.; Sturges, R.H.

1978-11-01

HEDL is developing automated fabrication equipment for fast reactor fuel. A major inspection operation in the process is the gaging of fuel pellets. A key element in the system has been the development of a handling system that reliably moves pellets at the rate of three per second without product damage or excessive equipment wear

Visual Inspection of Water Leakage from Ground Penetrating Radar Radargram

Science.gov (United States)

Halimshah, N. N.; Yusup, A.; Mat Amin, Z.; Ghazalli, M. D.

2015-10-01

Water loss in town and suburban is currently a significant issue which reflect the performance of water supply management in Malaysia. Consequently, water supply distribution system has to be maintained in order to prevent shortage of water supply in an area. Various techniques for detecting a mains water leaks are available but mostly are time-consuming, disruptive and expensive. In this paper, the potential of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) as a non-destructive method to correctly and efficiently detect mains water leaks has been examined. Several experiments were designed and conducted to prove that GPR can be used as tool for water leakage detection. These include instrument validation test and soil compaction test to clarify the maximum dry density (MDD) of soil and simulation studies on water leakage at a test bed consisting of PVC pipe burying in sand to a depth of 40 cm. Data from GPR detection are processed using the Reflex 2D software. Identification of water leakage was visually inspected from the anomalies in the radargram based on GPR reflection coefficients. The results have ascertained the capability and effectiveness of the GPR in detecting water leakage which could help avoiding difficulties with other leak detection methods.

VISUAL INSPECTION OF WATER LEAKAGE FROM GROUND PENETRATING RADAR RADARGRAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. N. Halimshah

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Water loss in town and suburban is currently a significant issue which reflect the performance of water supply management in Malaysia. Consequently, water supply distribution system has to be maintained in order to prevent shortage of water supply in an area. Various techniques for detecting a mains water leaks are available but mostly are time-consuming, disruptive and expensive. In this paper, the potential of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR as a non-destructive method to correctly and efficiently detect mains water leaks has been examined. Several experiments were designed and conducted to prove that GPR can be used as tool for water leakage detection. These include instrument validation test and soil compaction test to clarify the maximum dry density (MDD of soil and simulation studies on water leakage at a test bed consisting of PVC pipe burying in sand to a depth of 40 cm. Data from GPR detection are processed using the Reflex 2D software. Identification of water leakage was visually inspected from the anomalies in the radargram based on GPR reflection coefficients. The results have ascertained the capability and effectiveness of the GPR in detecting water leakage which could help avoiding difficulties with other leak detection methods.

Label inspection of approximate cylinder based on adverse cylinder panorama

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jianping; Liao, Qingmin; He, Bei; Shi, Chenbo

2013-12-01

This paper presents a machine vision system for automated label inspection, with the goal to reduce labor cost and ensure consistent product quality. Firstly, the images captured from each single-camera are distorted, since the inspection object is approximate cylindrical. Therefore, this paper proposes an algorithm based on adverse cylinder projection, where label images are rectified by distortion compensation. Secondly, to overcome the limited field of viewing for each single-camera, our method novelly combines images of all single-cameras and build a panorama for label inspection. Thirdly, considering the shake of production lines and error of electronic signal, we design the real-time image registration to calculate offsets between the template and inspected images. Experimental results demonstrate that our system is accurate, real-time and can be applied for numerous real- time inspections of approximate cylinders.

Holistic risk assessment and risk prevention approach to the mechanized NDT and the inspection procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertovic, Marija; Mueller, Christina; Fahlbruch, Babette; Ronneteg, Ulf; Pitkaenen, Jorma

2013-01-01

The difficulty to deal with human factors in non-destructive testing (NDT) stems from their diversity and complexity - no single human or organizational factor is responsible for the entire fluctuations in the NDT performance. The typical approach to decrease the variability in the inspection results had been found in replacing manual NDT with mechanized methods. However, even though some human errors can be avoided by automating the process, there are new risks that can arise from its application and need to be further investigated. To address this problem, a combination of theoretical and practical approaches should be applied, where the source of error is not seen only in the inspector, but also in his interaction with social and technical systems, as well as the organization. An analysis of potential risks in the use of mechanized inspections methods for spent fuel canisters has shown potential for human error in acquisition, as well as in the evaluation of the gathered results. Assessed causes of those errors lay in the inspector, but also in the organization and in shortcomings of the inspection procedure. The aim of the analysis was to provide with preventive measures and optimization recommendations. Those include further automation of the process, application of human redundancy, improvements of the inspection procedure, hardware and software improvements etc. Before improvements can be made, there is a need to understand the resulting processes and the influence of their interaction on the inspection results. The results have shown that when working with an automated system, one must avoid over relying on its proper functioning and form appropriate trust towards automation. Furthermore, human redundancy should be applied only in cases where the redundant inspectors are completely unaware of each other, in order to avoid the effects of social loafing and shirking. The inspection procedure is one of the most important tools in the application of NDT. On an

Holistic risk assessment and risk prevention approach to the mechanized NDT and the inspection procedure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bertovic, Marija; Mueller, Christina [Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin (Germany); Fahlbruch, Babette [TUEV NORD Systems GmbH und Co. KG, Berlin (Germany); Ronneteg, Ulf [SKB Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., Oskarshamn (Sweden); Pitkaenen, Jorma [Posiva Oy, Eurajoki (Finland)

2013-07-01

The difficulty to deal with human factors in non-destructive testing (NDT) stems from their diversity and complexity - no single human or organizational factor is responsible for the entire fluctuations in the NDT performance. The typical approach to decrease the variability in the inspection results had been found in replacing manual NDT with mechanized methods. However, even though some human errors can be avoided by automating the process, there are new risks that can arise from its application and need to be further investigated. To address this problem, a combination of theoretical and practical approaches should be applied, where the source of error is not seen only in the inspector, but also in his interaction with social and technical systems, as well as the organization. An analysis of potential risks in the use of mechanized inspections methods for spent fuel canisters has shown potential for human error in acquisition, as well as in the evaluation of the gathered results. Assessed causes of those errors lay in the inspector, but also in the organization and in shortcomings of the inspection procedure. The aim of the analysis was to provide with preventive measures and optimization recommendations. Those include further automation of the process, application of human redundancy, improvements of the inspection procedure, hardware and software improvements etc. Before improvements can be made, there is a need to understand the resulting processes and the influence of their interaction on the inspection results. The results have shown that when working with an automated system, one must avoid over relying on its proper functioning and form appropriate trust towards automation. Furthermore, human redundancy should be applied only in cases where the redundant inspectors are completely unaware of each other, in order to avoid the effects of social loafing and shirking. The inspection procedure is one of the most important tools in the application of NDT. On an

Second Annual Maintenance, Inspection, and Test Report for PAS-1 Cask Certification for Shipping Payload B

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

KELLY, D.J.

2000-01-01

The Nuclear Packaging, Inc. (NuPac), PAS-1 cask is required to undergo annual maintenance and inspections to retain certification in accordance with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Certificate of Compliance USA/9184B(U) (Appendix A). The packaging configuration being tested and maintained is the NuPac PAS-1 cask for Payload B. The intent of the maintenance and inspections is to ensure the packaging remains in unimpaired physical condition. Two casks, serial numbers 2162-026 and 2162-027, were maintained, inspected, and tested at the 306E Development, Fabrication, and Test Laboratory, located at the Hanford Site's 300 Area. Waste Management Federal Services, Inc. (WMFS), a subsidiary of GTS Duratek, was in charge of the maintenance and testing. Cogema Engineering Corporation (Cogema) directed the operations in the test facility. The maintenance, testing, and inspections were conducted successfully with both PAS-1 casks. The work conducted on the overpacks included weighing, gasket replacement, and plastic pipe plug and foam inspections. The work conducted on the secondary containment vessel (SCV) consisted of visual inspection of the vessel and threaded parts (i.e., fasteners), visual inspection of sealing surfaces, replacement of O-ring seals, and a helium leak test. The work conducted on the primary containment vessel (PCV) consisted of visual inspection of the vessel and threaded parts (i.e., fasteners), visual inspection of sealing surfaces, replacement of O-ring seals, dimensional inspection of the vessel bottom, a helium leak test, and dye penetrant inspection of the welds. The vermiculite material used in the cask rack assembly was replaced

Semi-automated identification of artefact and noise signals in MEG sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rettich, E.

2006-09-01

Magnetic encephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive method of measuring cerebral activity. It is based on the registration of magnetic fields that are induced by synaptic ion currents as the brain processes information. These magnetic fields are of a very small magnitude, ranging from a few femto Tesla (1 fT = 10 15 T) to several thousand fT (1 pT). This is equivalent to a ten thousandth to a billionth of the Earth's magnetic field. When applied with a time resolution in the range of milliseconds this technique permits research on time-critical neurophysiological processes. A meaningful analysis of MEG data presupposes that signals have been measured at low noise levels. This in turn requires magnetic shielding, normally in the form of a shielded cabin, and low-noise detectors. Data input from high-noise channels impairs the result of the measurement, possibly rendering it useless. To prevent this it is necessary to identify high-noise channels and remove them from the measurement data. At Juelich Research Center, like at most MEG laboratories, this is done by visual inspection. However, being dependent on the individual observer, this method does not yield objective results. Furthermore, visual inspection presupposes a high degree of experience and is time-consuming. This situation could be significantly improved by automated identification of high-noise channels. The purpose of the present study was to develop an algorithm that analyses measurement signals in a given time and frequency interval on the basis of statistical traits. Using a suitably designed user interface this permits searching MEG data for high-noise channel data below or above statistical threshold values on the basis of predetermined decision criteria. The identified high-noise channels are then output in a selection list, and the measurement data and results of the statistical analysis are displayed. This information enables the user to make changes and decide which high-noise channels to extract

A time-series method for automated measurement of changes in mitotic and interphase duration from time-lapse movies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederic D Sigoillot

Full Text Available Automated time-lapse microscopy can visualize proliferation of large numbers of individual cells, enabling accurate measurement of the frequency of cell division and the duration of interphase and mitosis. However, extraction of quantitative information by manual inspection of time-lapse movies is too time-consuming to be useful for analysis of large experiments.Here we present an automated time-series approach that can measure changes in the duration of mitosis and interphase in individual cells expressing fluorescent histone 2B. The approach requires analysis of only 2 features, nuclear area and average intensity. Compared to supervised learning approaches, this method reduces processing time and does not require generation of training data sets. We demonstrate that this method is as sensitive as manual analysis in identifying small changes in interphase or mitotic duration induced by drug or siRNA treatment.This approach should facilitate automated analysis of high-throughput time-lapse data sets to identify small molecules or gene products that influence timing of cell division.

INETEC new system for inspection of PWR reactor pressure vessel head

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nadinic, B.; Postruzin, Z.

2004-01-01

INETEC Institute for Nuclear Technology developed new equipment for inspection of PWR and VVER reactor pressure vessel head. The new advances in inspection technology are presented in this article, as the following: New advance manipulator for inspection of RPVH with high speed of inspection possibilities and total automated work; New sophisticated software for manipulator driving which includes 3D virtual presentation of manipulator movement and collision detection possibilities; New multi axis controller MAC-8; New end effector system for inspection of penetration tube and G weld; New eddy current and ultrasonic probes for inspection of G weld and penetration tube; New Eddy One Raster scan software for analysis of eddy current data with mant advanced features which allows easy and quick data analysis. Also the results of laboratory testing and laboratory qualification are presented on reactor pressure vessel head mock, as well as obtained speed of inspection and quality of collected data.(author)

Computer-aided ultrasonic inspection of steam turbine rotors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mayer, K H; Weber, M; Weiss, M [GEC ALSTHOM Energie GmbH, Nuremberg (Germany)

1999-12-31

As the output and economic value of power plants increase, the detection and sizing of the type of flaws liable to occur in the rotors of turbines using ultrasonic methods assumes increasing importance. An ultrasonic inspection carried out at considerable expense is expected to bring to light all safety-relevant flaws and to enable their size to be determined so as to permit a fracture-mechanics analysis to assess the reliability of the rotor under all possible stresses arising in operation with a high degree of accuracy. The advanced computer-aided ultrasonic inspection of steam turbine rotors have improved reliability, accuracy and reproducibility of ultrasonic inspection. Further, there has been an improvement in the resolution of resolvable group indications by applying reconstruction and imagine methods. In general, it is also true for the advanced computer-aided ultrasonic inspection methods that, in the case of flaw-affected forgings, automated data acquisition provides a substantial rationalization and a significant documentation of the results for the fracture mechanics assessment compared to manual inspection. (orig.) 8 refs.

Development of the pellet grinding and inspection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Toshihiro; Kawasaki, Takao; Inui, Toshihiko; Yamada, Hiroyuki.

1996-01-01

The pellet grinding and inspection system is the facility of producing the MOX fuel for FBRs, and it was delivered in March, 1996 to the No. 3 Development Office of the plutonium fuel shop in Tokai of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation. This facility realized the high speed processing using the compact facility by combining the grinding of pellets, the inspection of outer density and appearance, the rationalization of the facility and the high performance automation equipment. The production processes of MOX comprise the processes of powder, sinter, finish and inspection, fabrication and assembling. The requirement for developing these facilities is shown. The features of this pellet grinding and inspection system are the compact facility by the combination of functions, high speed processing, the reduction of holdup in processes and the improvement of maintenance. These features are explained. The main components are simple sorting equipment, grinder, grinding dust recovering equipment, outside diameter and density sorting equipment and appearance inspection equipment. The constitution and the main functions of the control facility are described. The operational process is explained. (K.I.)

Computer-aided ultrasonic inspection of steam turbine rotors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mayer, K.H.; Weber, M.; Weiss, M. [GEC ALSTHOM Energie GmbH, Nuremberg (Germany)

1998-12-31

As the output and economic value of power plants increase, the detection and sizing of the type of flaws liable to occur in the rotors of turbines using ultrasonic methods assumes increasing importance. An ultrasonic inspection carried out at considerable expense is expected to bring to light all safety-relevant flaws and to enable their size to be determined so as to permit a fracture-mechanics analysis to assess the reliability of the rotor under all possible stresses arising in operation with a high degree of accuracy. The advanced computer-aided ultrasonic inspection of steam turbine rotors have improved reliability, accuracy and reproducibility of ultrasonic inspection. Further, there has been an improvement in the resolution of resolvable group indications by applying reconstruction and imagine methods. In general, it is also true for the advanced computer-aided ultrasonic inspection methods that, in the case of flaw-affected forgings, automated data acquisition provides a substantial rationalization and a significant documentation of the results for the fracture mechanics assessment compared to manual inspection. (orig.) 8 refs.

Development of nuclear power plant automated remote patrol system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, R.; Kubo, K.; Sato, K.; Taguchi, J.

1984-01-01

An Automated Remote Patrol System was developed for a remote inspection, observation and monitoring of nuclear power plant's components. This automated remote patrol system consists of; a vehicle moving along a monorail; three rails mounted in a monorail for data transmission and for power supply; an image fiber connected to a TV camera; an arm type mechanism (manipulator) for moving image fiber; a computer for control and data processing and operator's console. Special features of this Automated Remote Patrol System are as follows: The inspection vehicle runs along horizontal and vertical (up/down) monorails. The arm type mechanism (manipulator) on the vehicle is used to move image fiber. Slide type electric collectors are used for data transmission and power supply. Time-division multiplexing is adapted for data transmission. Voice communication is used for controlling mechanisms. Pattern recognition is used for data processing. The experience that has been obtained from a series of various tests is summarized. (author)

Improvements of visual X-ray inspection with optimized digital detector technology. Faster and more reliable inspection with High Dynamic Radiology (HDR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bavendiek, Klaus

2010-01-01

Improvements in speed and contrast resolution of Digital Detector Arrays (DDA) and significant higher power of X-Ray tubes in combination with a small focal spot open the door to an improved visual inspection of castings for automotive and aerospace applications. The result is a film-like image quality of castings in a live view. For the new image quality the x-ray parameter have to be optimized in energy and the subject contrast has to be increased to avoid that flaws are covered by the noise in the image. HDR - high dynamic radiology - expands the local contrast in the image and transfers the grey values to the range the human inspector can separate. Due to the movement in the image the inspector gets a glas-like impression of the object and the flaws allowing him to do a decision about the 3D position of a flaw in the object. (orig.)

78 FR 19182 - Electronic Filing of Import Inspection Applications for Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-29

...] Electronic Filing of Import Inspection Applications for Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products: Availability of..., and egg products through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). ACE is the Web- based portal for... products (21 U.S.C. 620, 466). The Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) (21 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.) prohibits...

Automated detection of fundus photographic red lesions in diabetic retinopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Larsen, Michael; Godt, Jannik; Larsen, Nicolai; Lund-Andersen, Henrik; Sjølie, Anne Katrin; Agardh, Elisabet; Kalm, Helle; Grunkin, Michael; Owens, David R

2003-02-01

To compare a fundus image-analysis algorithm for automated detection of hemorrhages and microaneurysms with visual detection of retinopathy in patients with diabetes. Four hundred fundus photographs (35-mm color transparencies) were obtained in 200 eyes of 100 patients with diabetes who were randomly selected from the Welsh Community Diabetic Retinopathy Study. A gold standard reference was defined by classifying each patient as having or not having diabetic retinopathy based on overall visual grading of the digitized transparencies. A single-lesion visual grading was made independently, comprising meticulous outlining of all single lesions in all photographs and used to develop the automated red lesion detection system. A comparison of visual and automated single-lesion detection in replicating the overall visual grading was then performed. Automated red lesion detection demonstrated a specificity of 71.4% and a resulting sensitivity of 96.7% in detecting diabetic retinopathy when applied at a tentative threshold setting for use in diabetic retinopathy screening. The accuracy of 79% could be raised to 85% by adjustment of a single user-supplied parameter determining the balance between the screening priorities, for which a considerable range of options was demonstrated by the receiver-operating characteristic (area under the curve 90.3%). The agreement of automated lesion detection with overall visual grading (0.659) was comparable to the mean agreement of six ophthalmologists (0.648). Detection of diabetic retinopathy by automated detection of single fundus lesions can be achieved with a performance comparable to that of experienced ophthalmologists. The results warrant further investigation of automated fundus image analysis as a tool for diabetic retinopathy screening.

Radiography inspection of weld for nuclear fuel rod

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Kai; Zhang Xichang

1995-05-01

The survey of radiography inspection, advantages, disadvantages and applications of main kinds of radiography inspection methods are presented. Emphasis is put upon the structure and functions of X-ray flaw detecting device for nuclear fuel rod welds, the actuating program of the device, as well as the structure of some key mechanism and the functions of them. The analysis is made upon the actuating principles. Finally, the test of long-term operation proves the device to be stable in operation, reliable in action, to possess high level of automation and high sensitivity and it can simultaneously perform on-line X-ray inspection of 25 nuclear fuel rods with a diameter less than 10 mm, and meet the requirements of large-scale production of nuclear fuel rods (5 figs.)

An intelligent inspection and survey robot. Volume 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

ARIES number-sign 1 (Autonomous Robotic Inspection Experimental System), has been developed for the Department of Energy to survey and inspect drums containing low-level radioactive waste stored in warehouses at DOE facilities. The drums are typically stacked four high and arranged in rows with three-foot aisle widths. The robot will navigate through the aisles and perform an inspection operation, typically performed by a human operator, making decisions about the condition of the drums and maintaining a database of pertinent information about each drum. A new version of the Cybermotion series of mobile robots is the base mobile vehicle for ARIES. The new Model K3A consists of an improved and enhanced mobile platform and a new turret that will permit turning around in a three-foot aisle. Advanced sonar and lidar systems were added to improve navigation in the narrow drum aisles. Onboard computer enhancements include a VMEbus computer system running the VxWorks real-time operating system. A graphical offboard supervisory UNIX workstation is used for high-level planning, control, monitoring, and reporting. A camera positioning system (CPS) includes primitive instructions for the robot to use in referencing and positioning the payload. The CPS retracts to a more compact position when traveling in the open warehouse. During inspection, the CPS extends up to deploy inspection packages at different heights on the four-drum stacks of 55-, 85-, and 110-gallon drums. The vision inspection module performs a visual inspection of the waste drums. This system will locate and identify each drum, locate any unique visual features, characterize relevant surface features of interest and update a data-base containing the inspection data

An intelligent inspection and survey robot. Volume 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-15

ARIES {number_sign}1 (Autonomous Robotic Inspection Experimental System), has been developed for the Department of Energy to survey and inspect drums containing low-level radioactive waste stored in warehouses at DOE facilities. The drums are typically stacked four high and arranged in rows with three-foot aisle widths. The robot will navigate through the aisles and perform an inspection operation, typically performed by a human operator, making decisions about the condition of the drums and maintaining a database of pertinent information about each drum. A new version of the Cybermotion series of mobile robots is the base mobile vehicle for ARIES. The new Model K3A consists of an improved and enhanced mobile platform and a new turret that will permit turning around in a three-foot aisle. Advanced sonar and lidar systems were added to improve navigation in the narrow drum aisles. Onboard computer enhancements include a VMEbus computer system running the VxWorks real-time operating system. A graphical offboard supervisory UNIX workstation is used for high-level planning, control, monitoring, and reporting. A camera positioning system (CPS) includes primitive instructions for the robot to use in referencing and positioning the payload. The CPS retracts to a more compact position when traveling in the open warehouse. During inspection, the CPS extends up to deploy inspection packages at different heights on the four-drum stacks of 55-, 85-, and 110-gallon drums. The vision inspection module performs a visual inspection of the waste drums. This system will locate and identify each drum, locate any unique visual features, characterize relevant surface features of interest and update a data-base containing the inspection data.

49 CFR 192.241 - Inspection and test of welds.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... NATURAL AND OTHER GAS BY PIPELINE: MINIMUM FEDERAL SAFETY STANDARDS Welding of Steel in Pipelines § 192.241 Inspection and test of welds. (a) Visual inspection of welding must be conducted by an individual qualified by appropriate training and experience to ensure that: (1) The welding is performed in accordance...

Automation and remote handling activities in BARC: an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badodkar, D.N.

2016-01-01

Division of Remote Handling and Robotics, BARC has been working on design and development of various application specific remote handling and automation systems for nuclear front-end and back-end fuel cycle technologies. Division is also engaged in preservice and in-service inspection of coolant channels for Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors in India. Design and development of Reactor Control Mechanisms for Nuclear Research and Power Reactors (PHWRs and Compact LWRs) is another important activity carried out in this division. Robotic systems for Indoor and Outdoor surveillance in and around nuclear installations have also been developed. A line scan camera based system has been developed for measuring individual PHWR fuel pellet lengths as well as stack length. An industrial robot is used for autonomous exchange of pellets to achieve desired stack length. The system can be extended for active fuel pellets also. An automation system has been conceptualized for remote handling and transfer of spent fuel bundles from storage pool directly to the chopper unit of reprocessing plant. In case of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor which uses mixed oxides of (Th-Pu) and (Th-"2"3"3U ) as fuel, automation system for front-end fuel cycle has been designed, which includes Powder processing and pressing; Pellet handling and inspection; Pin handling and inspection; and Cluster assembly and dis-assembly in shielded facilities. System demonstration through fullscale mock-up facility is nearing completion. Above talk is presented on behalf of all the officers and staff of DRHR. The talk is mainly focused on development of an automated fuel fabrication facility for mixed oxides of (Th- Pu)/(Th-"2"3"3U ) fuel pins. An overview of divisional ongoing activities in the field of remote handling and automation are also covered. (author)

Current food chain information provides insufficient information for modern meat inspection of pigs.

Science.gov (United States)

Felin, Elina; Jukola, Elias; Raulo, Saara; Heinonen, Jaakko; Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Maria

2016-05-01

Meat inspection now incorporates a more risk-based approach for protecting human health against meat-borne biological hazards. Official post-mortem meat inspection of pigs has shifted to visual meat inspection. The official veterinarian decides on additional post-mortem inspection procedures, such as incisions and palpations. The decision is based on declarations in the food chain information (FCI), ante-mortem inspection and post-mortem inspection. However, a smooth slaughter and inspection process is essential. Therefore, one should be able to assess prior to slaughter which pigs are suitable for visual meat inspection only, and which need more profound inspection procedures. This study evaluates the usability of the FCI provided by pig producers and considered the possibility for risk ranking of incoming slaughter batches according to the previous meat inspection data and the current FCI. Eighty-five slaughter batches comprising 8954 fattening pigs were randomly selected at a slaughterhouse that receives animals from across Finland. The mortality rate, the FCI and the meat inspection results for each batch were obtained. The current FCI alone provided insufficient and inaccurate information for risk ranking purposes for meat inspection. The partial condemnation rate for a batch was best predicted by the partial condemnation rate calculated for all the pigs sent for slaughter from the same holding in the previous year (p<0.001) and by prior information on cough declared in the current FCI (p=0.02) statement. Training and information to producers are needed to make the FCI reporting procedures more accurate. Historical meat inspection data on pigs slaughtered from the same holdings and well-chosen symptoms/signs for reporting, should be included in the FCI to facilitate the allocation of pigs for visual inspection. The introduced simple scoring system can be easily used for additional information for directing batches to appropriate meat inspection procedures. To

Torque Audit and Visual Inspection of the In-Pool Assembly for CNS in HANARO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Jin Won; Wu, Sang Ik; Kim, Min Su; Han, Jae Sam; Kim, Hyung Kyoo

2012-01-01

The Cold Neutron Source (CNS) was installed at the HANARO in 2009 and has been operated over 2 years to supply cold neutrons for the cold neutron scattering instruments. The liquid hydrogen, which is cooled down to 152±3 kPa(a) by the helium refrigeration system, in the moderator cell of In-Pool Assembly (IPA) is used to moderate thermal neutrons into cold neutrons. Cold neutron flux is dependent upon the state of liquid hydrogen, which can be identified by the pressure. So the operation of the helium refrigeration system is most important to keep the hydrogen pressure stable. Another factor influencing cold neutron flux is the thickness of the water film gap between the outer surface of IPA and the inner surface of CN vertical hole. The IPA was installed in the CN vertical hole closely to the CN beam tube within a minimum water film gap to get maximum cold neutron flux. But if tightening bolts assembling the IPA on the reactor structure become loose in abnormal cases, the water film gap could be changed and therefore influence cold neutron flux. So we need to check the installation torques and to inspect the assembly status of the IPA on the reactor structure to ensure that the water film gap is kept well as initially installed. This paper presents the results of the torque audit and the visual inspection of the IPA performed in 2011

Torque Audit and Visual Inspection of the In-Pool Assembly for CNS in HANARO

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shin, Jin Won; Wu, Sang Ik; Kim, Min Su; Han, Jae Sam; Kim, Hyung Kyoo [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-05-15

The Cold Neutron Source (CNS) was installed at the HANARO in 2009 and has been operated over 2 years to supply cold neutrons for the cold neutron scattering instruments. The liquid hydrogen, which is cooled down to 152{+-}3 kPa(a) by the helium refrigeration system, in the moderator cell of In-Pool Assembly (IPA) is used to moderate thermal neutrons into cold neutrons. Cold neutron flux is dependent upon the state of liquid hydrogen, which can be identified by the pressure. So the operation of the helium refrigeration system is most important to keep the hydrogen pressure stable. Another factor influencing cold neutron flux is the thickness of the water film gap between the outer surface of IPA and the inner surface of CN vertical hole. The IPA was installed in the CN vertical hole closely to the CN beam tube within a minimum water film gap to get maximum cold neutron flux. But if tightening bolts assembling the IPA on the reactor structure become loose in abnormal cases, the water film gap could be changed and therefore influence cold neutron flux. So we need to check the installation torques and to inspect the assembly status of the IPA on the reactor structure to ensure that the water film gap is kept well as initially installed. This paper presents the results of the torque audit and the visual inspection of the IPA performed in 2011

30 CFR 56.4201 - Inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control... following schedules: (1) Fire extinguishers shall be inspected visually at least once a month to determine...

30 CFR 57.4201 - Inspection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control... following schedules: (1) Fire extinguishers shall be inspected visually at least once a month to determine...

LiDAR-based 2D Localization and Mapping System using Elliptical Distance Correction Models for UAV Wind Turbine Blade Inspection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nikolov, Ivan Adriyanov; Madsen, Claus B.

2017-01-01

The wind energy sector faces a constant need for annual inspections of wind turbine blades for damage, erosion and cracks. These inspections are an important part of the wind turbine life cycle and can be very costly and hazardous to specialists. This has led to the use of automated drone inspect...

Full surface inspection methods regarding reinforcement corrosion of concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reichling, K.; Raupach, M.; Broomfield, J.; Gulikers, J.; L'Hostis, Valerie

2013-01-01

For reinforced concrete structures a localisation of all significant critical areas can only be done by a full surface inspection. The economic advantages are obvious: uncritical areas have not to be repaired expensively.The first step of the assessment should always be a visual inspection. The range of deterioration causes can be limited and the degree of deterioration may be estimated roughly. The inspection program can be adjusted to the requirements. By means of a full surface potential mapping areas with a high risk for chloride induced reinforcement corrosion can be localised, although no deteriorations are visually detectable at the concrete surface. In combination with concrete cover depth and resistivity measurements areas with corrosion promoting exposure conditions can be localised even if the reinforcement is not yet de-passivated. The following publication gives an overview about the essential full surface investigation methods to localise critical areas regarding corrosion of steel in concrete. The selection of methods is based on the inspection procedure given in reference 2. (authors)

Visualization of the variability of 3D statistical shape models by animation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamecker, Hans; Seebass, Martin; Lange, Thomas; Hege, Hans-Christian; Deuflhard, Peter

2004-01-01

Models of the 3D shape of anatomical objects and the knowledge about their statistical variability are of great benefit in many computer assisted medical applications like images analysis, therapy or surgery planning. Statistical model of shapes have successfully been applied to automate the task of image segmentation. The generation of 3D statistical shape models requires the identification of corresponding points on two shapes. This remains a difficult problem, especially for shapes of complicated topology. In order to interpret and validate variations encoded in a statistical shape model, visual inspection is of great importance. This work describes the generation and interpretation of statistical shape models of the liver and the pelvic bone.

A development methodology for a remote inspection system with JAVA and socket

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Yoo Rark; Lee, Jae Cheol; Kim, Jae Hee

2004-01-01

We have developed RISYS (Reactor Inspection System) which inspects reactor vessel welds by an underwater mobile robot. The system consists of a main control computer and an inspection robot which is controlled by the main control computer. Since the environments of the inspection tasks in a nuclear plant, like in other industrial fields, is very poor, serious accidents often happen. Therefore the necessity for remote inspection and control system has increased more and more. We have carried out the research for a remote inspection model for RISYS, and have adopted the world wide web, java, and socket technologies for it. Client interface to access the main control computer that controls the inspection equipment is essential for the development of a remote inspection system. It has been developed with a traditional programming language, for example, Visual C++, Visual Basic and X-Window. However, it is too expensive to vend and maintain the version of a interface program because of the different computer O/S. Nevertheless web and java technologies come to the fore to solve the problems but the java interpreting typed language could incur a performance problem in operating the remote inspection system. We suggest a methodology for developing a remote inspection system with java, a traditional programming language, and a socket programming that solves the java performance problem in this paper

A survey on inspecting structures using robotic systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randa Almadhoun

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Advancements in robotics and autonomous systems are being deployed nowadays in many application domains such as search and rescue, industrial automation, domestic services and healthcare. These systems are developed to tackle tasks in some of the most challenging, labour intensive and dangerous environments. Inspecting structures (e.g. bridges, buildings, ships, wind turbines and aircrafts is considered a hard task for humans to perform and of critical importance since missing any details could affect the structure’s performance and integrity. Additionally, structure inspection is time and resource intensive and should be performed as efficiently and accurately as possible. Inspecting various structures has been reported in the literature using different robotic platforms to: inspect difficult to reach areas and detect various types of faults and anomalies. Typically, inspection missions involve performing three main tasks: coverage path planning, shape, model or surface reconstruction and the actual inspection of the structure. Coverage path planning ensures the generation of an optimized path that guarantees the complete coverage of the structure of interest in order to gather highly accurate information to be used for shape/model reconstruction. This article aims to provide an overview of the recent work and breakthroughs in the field of coverage path planning and model reconstruction, with focus on 3D reconstruction, for the purpose of robotic inspection.

In-service inspection in the Superphenix 1 vessels interspace

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asty, M.; Saglio, R.

1983-03-01

The design of Superphenix 1 reactor vessels allows their in-service inspection. A self-propelling engine, the MIR, has been concieved for this need: it can do a visual and ultrasonic inspection. The MIR can move in the whole vessels interspace. The operating conditions are specified and the principle characteristics of the MIR engine are presented [fr

Finite element modeling of ultrasonic inspection of weldments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dewey, B.R.; Adler, L.; Oliver, B.F.; Pickard, C.A.

1983-01-01

High performance weldments for critical service applications require 100% inspection. Balanced against the adaptability of the ultrasonic method for automated inspection are the difficulties encountered with nonhomogeneous and anisotropic materials. This research utilizes crystals and bicrystals of nickel to model austenitic weld metal, where the anisotropy produces scattering and mode conversion, making detection and measurement of actual defects difficult. Well characterized samples of Ni are produced in a levitation zone melting facility. Crystals in excess of 25 mm diameter and length are large enough to permit ultrasonic measurements of attenuation, wave speed, and spectral content. At the same time, the experiments are duplicated as finite element models for comparison purposes

Methodology For Reduction Of Sampling On The Visual Inspection Of Developed And Etched Wafers

Science.gov (United States)

van de Ven, Jamie S.; Khorasani, Fred

1989-07-01

There is a lot of inspection in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Generally, the more important a manufacturing step, the higher is the level of inspection. In some cases 100% of the wafers are inspected after certain steps. Inspection is a non-value added and expensive activity. It requires an army of "inspectors," often times expensive equipment and becomes a "bottle neck" when the level of inspection is high. Although inspection helps identify quality problems, it hurts productivity. The new management, quality and productivity philosophies recommend against over inspection. [Point #3 in Dr. Deming's 14 Points for Management (1)] 100% inspection is quite unnecessary . Often the nature of a process allows us to reduce inspection drastically and still maintain a high level of confidence in quality. In section 2, we discuss such situations and show that some elementary probability theory allows us to determine sample sizes and measure the chances of catching a bad "lot" and accepting a good lot. In section 3, we provide an example and application of the theory, and make a few comments on money and time saved because of this work. Finally, in section 4, we draw some conclusions about the new quality and productivity philosophies and how applied statisticians and engineers should study every situation individually and avoid blindly using methods and tables given in books.

Towards visual assessment of succulent valley bushveld. | G.C. ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Visual vegetation assessment was tested for repeatability and accuracy and compared with an objective survey technique for time and cost efficiency. Eighteen operators first inspected a range of sites where ecological status was known. Using these for reference, they then visually inspected and independently estimated ...

Comparison of Size Modulation Standard Automated Perimetry and Conventional Standard Automated Perimetry with a 10-2 Test Program in Glaucoma Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirasawa, Kazunori; Takahashi, Natsumi; Satou, Tsukasa; Kasahara, Masayuki; Matsumura, Kazuhiro; Shoji, Nobuyuki

2017-08-01

This prospective observational study compared the performance of size modulation standard automated perimetry with the Octopus 600 10-2 test program, with stimulus size modulation during testing, based on stimulus intensity and conventional standard automated perimetry, with that of the Humphrey 10-2 test program in glaucoma patients. Eighty-seven eyes of 87 glaucoma patients underwent size modulation standard automated perimetry with Dynamic strategy and conventional standard automated perimetry using the SITA standard strategy. The main outcome measures were global indices, point-wise threshold, visual defect size and depth, reliability indices, and test duration; these were compared between size modulation standard automated perimetry and conventional standard automated perimetry. Global indices and point-wise threshold values between size modulation standard automated perimetry and conventional standard automated perimetry were moderately to strongly correlated (p 33.40, p modulation standard automated perimetry than with conventional standard automated perimetry, but the visual-field defect size was smaller (p modulation-standard automated perimetry than on conventional standard automated perimetry. The reliability indices, particularly the false-negative response, of size modulation standard automated perimetry were worse than those of conventional standard automated perimetry (p modulation standard automated perimetry than with conventional standard automated perimetry (p = 0.02). Global indices and the point-wise threshold value of the two testing modalities correlated well. However, the potential of a large stimulus presented at an area with a decreased sensitivity with size modulation standard automated perimetry could underestimate the actual threshold in the 10-2 test protocol, as compared with conventional standard automated perimetry.

Usage Inspection of KN-12 Spent Fuel Transport Cask

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J. C.; Seo, K. S.; Bang, K. S.; Cho, I. J.; Kim, D. H.; Min, D. K.

2007-03-01

The usage inspection of the KN-12 spent nuclear fuel transport package was performed to receive the license for reuse. According to the Korea Atomic Energy Act, all type B transport package should receive and pass the usage inspection every five years. The KN-12 transport cask was designed to transport twelve spent PWR fuel assemblies under wet and dry conditions. The cask was developed and licensed in 2002 in accordance with the Korea and the IAEA's safe transport regulations. The areas of usage inspection include: visual inspection, nondestructive weld inspection, load test, maximum operating pressure test, leakage test, shielding test, thermal test, external surface contamination test. In the results of the usage inspection, the damage or defect could not found out and the performance of the cask was maintained according to the requirements of the regulation. Therefore, the usage inspection was successfully performed to acquire the license for the reuse

Automated Quality Assessment of Structural Magnetic Resonance Brain Images Based on a Supervised Machine Learning Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo Andres Pizarro

2016-12-01

Full Text Available High-resolution three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D-MRI is being increasingly used to delineate morphological changes underlying neuropsychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, artifacts frequently compromise the utility of 3D-MRI yielding irreproducible results, from both type I and type II errors. It is therefore critical to screen 3D-MRIs for artifacts before use. Currently, quality assessment involves slice-wise visual inspection of 3D-MRI volumes, a procedure that is both subjective and time consuming. Automating the quality rating of 3D-MRI could improve the efficiency and reproducibility of the procedure. The present study is one of the first efforts to apply a support vector machine (SVM algorithm in the quality assessment of structural brain images, using global and region of interest (ROI automated image quality features developed in-house. SVM is a supervised machine-learning algorithm that can predict the category of test datasets based on the knowledge acquired from a learning dataset. The performance (accuracy of the automated SVM approach was assessed, by comparing the SVM-predicted quality labels to investigator-determined quality labels. The accuracy for classifying 1457 3D-MRI volumes from our database using the SVM approach is around 80%. These results are promising and illustrate the possibility of using SVM as an automated quality assessment tool for 3D-MRI.

Automated Quality Assessment of Structural Magnetic Resonance Brain Images Based on a Supervised Machine Learning Algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Pizarro, Ricardo A; Cheng, Xi; Barnett, Alan; Lemaitre, Herve; Verchinski, Beth A; Goldman, Aaron L; Xiao, Ena; Luo, Qian; Berman, Karen F; Callicott, Joseph H; Weinberger, Daniel R; Mattay, Venkata S

2016-01-01

High-resolution three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D-MRI) is being increasingly used to delineate morphological changes underlying neuropsychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, artifacts frequently compromise the utility of 3D-MRI yielding irreproducible results, from both type I and type II errors. It is therefore critical to screen 3D-MRIs for artifacts before use. Currently, quality assessment involves slice-wise visual inspection of 3D-MRI volumes, a procedure that is both subjective and time consuming. Automating the quality rating of 3D-MRI could improve the efficiency and reproducibility of the procedure. The present study is one of the first efforts to apply a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm in the quality assessment of structural brain images, using global and region of interest (ROI) automated image quality features developed in-house. SVM is a supervised machine-learning algorithm that can predict the category of test datasets based on the knowledge acquired from a learning dataset. The performance (accuracy) of the automated SVM approach was assessed, by comparing the SVM-predicted quality labels to investigator-determined quality labels. The accuracy for classifying 1457 3D-MRI volumes from our database using the SVM approach is around 80%. These results are promising and illustrate the possibility of using SVM as an automated quality assessment tool for 3D-MRI.

Experiences concerning reactor pressure vessel head penetration inspections; Erfahrungen mit Pruefungen von Reaktordruckbehaelter-Deckeldurchfuehrungen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Debnar, Angelika [Westinghouse Electric Germany GmbH, Mannheim (Germany)

2009-07-01

Globally observed damage at the control rod drive mechanism nozzles in PWR-type reactors (Bugey-3, Oconee 1,2,3 and ANO-1, David Besse) have triggered enhanced inspection of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) head penetrations. In Germany the regulations require a periodic inspection especially of dissimilar welds. Westinghouse has developed an automated measuring system for RPV heads aimed to inspect welded joints at open nozzles of nozzles with thermosleeves. The testing technology with remote controlled robotics is supposed to perform a weld inspection as complete as possible, restraints result from constructive difficulties for the accessibility. The new gap-scanner DE2008 was qualified at the mock-up and was implemented into the periodic in-service inspection of Neckarwestheim-1.

Comparing Visually Assessed BI-RADS Breast Density and Automated Volumetric Breast Density Software: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Breast Cancer Screening Setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Waal, Daniëlle; den Heeten, Gerard J.; Pijnappel, Ruud M.; Schuur, Klaas H.; Timmers, Johanna M. H.; Verbeek, André L. M.; Broeders, Mireille J. M.

2015-01-01

The objective of this study is to compare different methods for measuring breast density, both visual assessments and automated volumetric density, in a breast cancer screening setting. These measures could potentially be implemented in future screening programmes, in the context of personalised

Comparing Visually Assessed BI-RADS Breast Density and Automated Volumetric Breast Density Software: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Breast Cancer Screening Setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waal, D. van der; Heeten, GJ. den; Pijnappel, R.M.; Schuur, K.H.; Timmers, J.M.; Verbeek, A.L.; Broeders, M.J.

2015-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study is to compare different methods for measuring breast density, both visual assessments and automated volumetric density, in a breast cancer screening setting. These measures could potentially be implemented in future screening programmes, in the context of

Comparing Visually Assessed BI-RADS Breast Density and Automated Volumetric Breast Density Software : A Cross-Sectional Study in a Breast Cancer Screening Setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Waal, Danielle; den Heeten, Gerard J.; Pijnappel, Ruud M.; Schuur, Klaas H.; Timmers, Johanna M. H.; Verbeek, Andre L. M.; Broeders, Mireille J. M.

2015-01-01

Introduction The objective of this study is to compare different methods for measuring breast density, both visual assessments and automated volumetric density, in a breast cancer screening setting. These measures could potentially be implemented in future screening programmes, in the context of

Application of Automated NDE Data Evaluation to Missile and Aircraft Systems

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hildreth, Joseph

1996-01-01

... from the inspection of solid rocket motors during fabrication. The computerized system, called the Automated NDE Data Evaluation System or ANDES, was developed under contract to Martin Marietta...

Development of machine vision system for PHWR fuel pellet inspection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamalesh Kumar, B.; Reddy, K.S.; Lakshminarayana, A.; Sastry, V.S.; Ramana Rao, A.V. [Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (India); Joshi, M.; Deshpande, P.; Navathe, C.P.; Jayaraj, R.N. [Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, Madhya Pradesh (India)

2008-07-01

Nuclear Fuel Complex, a constituent of Department of Atomic Energy; India is responsible for manufacturing nuclear fuel in India . Over a million Uranium-di-oxide pellets fabricated per annum need visual inspection . In order to overcome the limitations of human based visual inspection, NFC has undertaken the development of machine vision system. The development involved designing various subsystems viz. mechanical and control subsystem for handling and rotation of fuel pellets, lighting subsystem for illumination, image acquisition system, and image processing system and integration. This paper brings out details of various subsystems and results obtained from the trials conducted. (author)

Automating the radiographic NDT process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aman, J.K.

1986-01-01

Automation, the removal of the human element in inspection, has not been generally applied to film radiographic NDT. The justication for automating is not only productivity but also reliability of results. Film remains in the automated system of the future because of its extremely high image content, approximately 8 x 10 9 bits per 14 x 17. The equivalent to 2200 computer floppy discs. Parts handling systems and robotics applied for manufacturing and some NDT modalities, should now be applied to film radiographic NDT systems. Automatic film handling can be achieved with the daylight NDT film handling system. Automatic film processing is becoming the standard in industry and can be coupled to the daylight system. Robots offer the opportunity to automate fully the exposure step. Finally, computer aided interpretation appears on the horizon. A unit which laser scans a 14 x 17 (inch) film in 6 - 8 seconds can digitize film information for further manipulation and possible automatic interrogations (computer aided interpretation). The system called FDRS (for Film Digital Radiography System) is moving toward 50 micron (*approx* 16 lines/mm) resolution. This is believed to meet the need of the majority of image content needs. We expect the automated system to appear first in parts (modules) as certain operations are automated. The future will see it all come together in an automated film radiographic NDT system (author) [pt

An ultrasonic inspection tool for production tubulars

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Newton, K; Martin, R; Ravenscroft, F [AEA Technology, Harwell (United Kingdom)

1994-06-01

Advances in ultrasonic technology, high temperature techniques and remote processing power are enabling a new generation of inspection tools to be developed. This paper describes a particular new ultrasonic caliper system, developed by AEA Technology, with the aim of providing improved information about the condition of production tubulars of oil and gas wells. The system is designed to provide enhanced surface area coverage compared to the current devices, which are typically mechanical 'finger' calipers. It also provides a non-contacting measure of corrosion and wear together with direct on-line output and automated data analysis. The new tool is designed to operate in oil and gas, vertical or deviated wells and has the potential for modification to inspect small diameter pipes in topside or other plant. (author)

Comparison of visual inspection of cervix and pap smear for cervical cancer screening

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tayyeb, R.; Khawaja, N.P.; Malik, N.

2003-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the performance of visual inspection of cervix (VIA) after application of 3% acetic acid in cervical cancer screening in comparison with PAP smear. Results: Out of 540 subjects, 356 were negative with both screening techniques. One hundred and fifty-six subjects were positive with VIA (28.9%) while PAP smear was positive in seventy-eight subjects (14.4%). The sensitivity of VIA was 93.9% and of PAP smear was 46.9%. Corresponding specificities were 30.4% and 69.5%. There was no significant difference between the positive predictive value (PPV) of both test (p<0.05). The accuracy of VIA was 77.5% compared to 52.8% of PAP smear. The difference was highly significant (p < 0.01). Conclusion: These results indicate that VIA is more sensitive and has a higher accuracy as compared to PAP smear. It could, therefore, be valuable in detection of precancerous lesions of cervix. Low cost, easy applicability and immediate results make VIA a useful screening test in developing countries like Pakistan as compared to PAP smear. (author)

Semi-automated reviewing station for IAEA optical surveillance data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darnell, R.A.; Sonnier, C.S.

1987-01-01

A study is underway on the use of computer vision technology to assist in visual inspection of optical surveillance data. The IAEA currently uses optical surveillance as one of its principle Containment and Surveillance (C/S) measures. The review process is a very time-consuming and tedious task, due to the large amount of optical surveillance data to be reviewed. For some time, the IAEA has identified as one of its principle needs an automated optical surveillance data reviewing station that assists the reviewer in identifying activities of safeguards interest, such as the movement of a very large spent fuel cask. The present development reviewing station consists of commercially available digital image processing hardware controlled by a personal computer. The areas under study include change detection, target discrimination, tracking, and classification. Several algorithms are being evaluated in each of these areas using recorded video tape of safeguards relevant scenes. The computer vision techniques and current status of the studies are discussed

An intelligent system for real time automatic defect inspection on specular coated surfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jinhua; Parker, Johné M.; Hou, Zhen

2005-07-01

Product visual inspection is still performed manually or semi automatically in most industries from simple ceramic tile grading to complex automotive body panel paint defect and surface quality inspection. Moreover, specular surfaces present additional challenge to conventional vision systems due to specular reflections, which may mask the true location of objects and lead to incorrect measurements. There are some sophisticated visual inspection methods developed in recent years. Unfortunately, most of them are highly computational. Systems built on those methods are either inapplicable or very costly to achieve real time inspection. In this paper, we describe an integrated low-cost intelligent system developed to automatically capture, extract, and segment defects on specular surfaces with uniform color coatings. The system inspects and locates regular surface defects with lateral dimensions as small as a millimeter. The proposed system is implemented on a group of smart cameras using its on-board processing ability to achieve real time inspection. The experimental results on real test panels demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of proposed system.

Fast and Efficient Fragment-Based Lead Generation by Fully Automated Processing and Analysis of Ligand-Observed NMR Binding Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Chen; Frommlet, Alexandra; Perez, Manuel; Cobas, Carlos; Blechschmidt, Anke; Dominguez, Santiago; Lingel, Andreas

2016-04-14

NMR binding assays are routinely applied in hit finding and validation during early stages of drug discovery, particularly for fragment-based lead generation. To this end, compound libraries are screened by ligand-observed NMR experiments such as STD, T1ρ, and CPMG to identify molecules interacting with a target. The analysis of a high number of complex spectra is performed largely manually and therefore represents a limiting step in hit generation campaigns. Here we report a novel integrated computational procedure that processes and analyzes ligand-observed proton and fluorine NMR binding data in a fully automated fashion. A performance evaluation comparing automated and manual analysis results on (19)F- and (1)H-detected data sets shows that the program delivers robust, high-confidence hit lists in a fraction of the time needed for manual analysis and greatly facilitates visual inspection of the associated NMR spectra. These features enable considerably higher throughput, the assessment of larger libraries, and shorter turn-around times.

Emerging nondestructive inspection methods for aging aircraft

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beattie, A; Dahlke, L; Gieske, J [and others

1994-01-01

This report identifies and describes emerging nondestructive inspection (NDI) methods that can potentially be used to inspect commercial transport and commuter aircraft for structural damage. The nine categories of emerging NDI techniques are: acoustic emission, x-ray computed tomography, backscatter radiation, reverse geometry x-ray, advanced electromagnetics, including magnetooptic imaging and advanced eddy current techniques, coherent optics, advanced ultrasonics, advanced visual, and infrared thermography. The physical principles, generalized performance characteristics, and typical applications associated with each method are described. In addition, aircraft inspection applications are discussed along with the associated technical considerations. Finally, the status of each technique is presented, with a discussion on when it may be available for use in actual aircraft maintenance programs. It should be noted that this is a companion document to DOT/FAA/CT-91/5, Current Nondestructive Inspection Methods for Aging Aircraft.

Mechatronics Design of an Autonomous Pipe-Inspection Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdellatif Mohamed

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Pipelines require periodical inspection to detect corrosion, deformation and congestion with obstacles in the network. Autonomous mobile robots are good solutions for this task. Visual information from the pipe interior associated with a location stamp is needed for inspection. In this paper, the previous designs of autonomous robots are reviewed and a new robot is developed to ensure simple design and smooth motion. Images are processed online to detect irregularity in pipe and then start capturing high resolution pictures to conserve the limited memory size. The new robot moves in pipes and provides video stream of pipe interior with location stamp. The visual information can later be processed offline to extract more information of pipeline condition to make maintenance decisions.

Usage Inspection of KN-12 Spent Fuel Transport Cask

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, J. C.; Seo, K. S.; Bang, K. S.; Cho, I. J.; Kim, D. H.; Min, D. K

2007-03-15

The usage inspection of the KN-12 spent nuclear fuel transport package was performed to receive the license for reuse. According to the Korea Atomic Energy Act, all type B transport package should receive and pass the usage inspection every five years. The KN-12 transport cask was designed to transport twelve spent PWR fuel assemblies under wet and dry conditions. The cask was developed and licensed in 2002 in accordance with the Korea and the IAEA's safe transport regulations. The areas of usage inspection include: visual inspection, nondestructive weld inspection, load test, maximum operating pressure test, leakage test, shielding test, thermal test, external surface contamination test. In the results of the usage inspection, the damage or defect could not found out and the performance of the cask was maintained according to the requirements of the regulation. Therefore, the usage inspection was successfully performed to acquire the license for the reuse.

Automated evaluation of ultrasonic indications. State of the art -development trends. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansch, M.K.T.; Stegemann, D.

1994-01-01

Future requirements of reliability and reproducibility in quality assurance demand computer evaluation of defect indications. The ultrasonic method with its large field of applications and a high potential for automation provides all preconditions for fully automated inspection. The survey proposes several desirable hardware improvements, data acquisition requirements and software configurations. (orig.) [de

Role of Visual Inspection of Cervix with Acetic Acid (VIA in Detecting Precancerous Lesions of Cervix

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamrun Nessa

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Carcinoma of cervix is the most common malignancy in female and a major public health problem worldwide. It is the leading cause of death from cancer among women in low resource settings. In Bangladesh, mortality rate is high as most of the cases with cervical cancer are diagnosed in advanced stage. World Health Organization considers cervical cancer as a preventable disease as it can be identified in preinvasive stage. Considerable efforts have been given in detection and treatment of the condition all over the world. A number of cervical cancer screening tests are available. Among them, visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid is rational and can be competently performed by physicians with proper training. Objective: To find out the feasibility of the visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid for the detection of the precancerous lesions of the cervix in our country. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional, analytical study was carried out among the patients attending the outpatient department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU who were VIA positive and sent for colposcopy in the colposcopy clinic in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in BSMMU from June to December 2004. Two hundred samples were considered for this study. Results: Out of 200 cases, colposcopically 85% had CIN and invasive lesions, 4% had inflammatory lesions while 11% had normal findings. Colposcopy directed punch biopsy revealed positive lesions in 81%, 4% had inflammatory lesions while 15% had normal findings. Conclusion: The study concluded that VIA and colposcopy are the important methods in the evaluation of cervical premalignancy. VIA may be an important tool for screening of cervical cancer in low resource settings as it is simple, easy to perform and cost-effective. After screening, VIA positive cases must be referred for colposcopic evaluation. We can screen cervical cancer by VIA all over the country and thus reduce

Integration of process-oriented control with systematic inspection in FRAMATOME-FBFC fuel manufacturing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kopff, G.

2000-01-01

The classical approach to quality control is essentially based on final inspection of the product conducted through a qualified process. The main drawback of this approach lies in the separation and , therefore, in the low feedback between manufacturing and quality control, leading to a very static quality system. As a remedy, the modern approach to quality management focuses on the need for continuous improvement through process-oriented quality control. In the classical approach, high reliability of nuclear fuel and high quality level of the main characteristics are assumed to be attained, at the manufacturing step, through 100% inspection of the product, generally with automated inspection equipment. Such a 100% final inspection is not appropriate to obtain a homogeneous product with minimum variability, and cannot be a substitute for the SPC tools (Statistical Process Control) which are rightly designed with this aim. On the other hand, SPC methods, which detect process changes and are used to keep the process u nder control , leading to the optimal distribution of the quality characteristics, do not protect against non systematic or local disturbances, at low frequency. Only systematic control is capable of detecting local quality troubles. In fact, both approaches, SPC and systematic inspection, are complementary , because they are remedies for distinct causes of process and product changes. The term 'statistical' in the expression 'SPC' refers less to the sampling techniques than to the control of global distribution parameters of product or process variables (generally location and dispersion parameters). The successive integration levels of process control methods with systematic inspection are described and illustrated by examples from FRAMATOME-FBFC fuel manufacturing, from the simple control chart for checking the performance stability of automated inspection equipment to the global process control system including systematic inspection. This kind of

Proposal of the visual inspection of the integrity of the storage cells of spent fuel from the nuclear power plant of Laguna Verde

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez M, J. L.; Rivero G, T.; Merino C, F. J.; Santander C, L. E.

2015-09-01

As part of the evaluation of the structural integrity of the components of nuclear plants, particularly those applying for life extension is necessary to carry out inspections and nondestructive testing to determine the state meet. In many cases these activities are carried out in areas with high levels of radiation and contamination difficult to access, so that are required to use equipment or robotic systems operated remotely. Among others, the frames and cells of the storage pools for spent fuel are structures subject to a program of tests and inspections, and become relevant because the nuclear power plant of Laguna Verde (NPP-LV) is processing the license to extend the operational life of its reactors. Of non-destructive testing can be used to verify the physical condition of the frames and storage cells, is the remote visual inspection which is a test that allows determine the physical integrity of the components by one or more video cameras designed to applications in underwater environments with radiation, and are used to identify and locate adverse conditions such as ampoules, protuberances, pitting, cracks, stains or buckling, which could affect the three main functions for which the store components are designed: to maintain the physical integrity of spent fuels, store them properly guaranteeing their free insertion and removal, and ensure that the store as a whole meets the criticality criteria that k eff is less than 0.95 throughout the life of the plant. This paper describes a proposal to carry out the visual inspection of the storage cells of spent fuel from the NPP-LV using a probe including one or more video cameras along with your recorder, and its corresponding control program. It is noted that due to the obtained results, the nuclear power plant personnel can make decisions regarding remedial actions or applying complementary methods to verify that the cells and frames have not lost their physical integrity, or in particular that the cover

An Automated Scheme for the Large-Scale Survey of Herbig-Haro Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Licai; Yang, Ji; Zheng, Zhongyuan; Jiang, Zhaoji

2001-04-01

Owing to their spectral properties, Herbig-Haro (HH) objects can be discovered using photometric methods through a combination of filters, sampling the characteristic spectral lines and the nearby continuum. The data are commonly processed through direct visual inspection of the images. To make data reduction more efficient and the results more uniform and complete, an automated searching scheme for HH objects is developed to manipulate the images using IRAF. This approach helps to extract images with only intrinsic HH emissions. By using this scheme, the pointlike stellar sources and extended nebulous sources with continuum emission can be eliminated from the original images. The objects with only characteristic HH emission become prominent and can be easily picked up. In this paper our scheme is illustrated by a sample field and has been applied to our surveys for HH objects.

Early visual analysis tool using magnetoencephalography for treatment and recovery of neuronal dysfunction.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasheed, Waqas; Neoh, Yee Yik; Bin Hamid, Nor Hisham; Reza, Faruque; Idris, Zamzuri; Tang, Tong Boon

2017-10-01

Functional neuroimaging modalities play an important role in deciding the diagnosis and course of treatment of neuronal dysfunction and degeneration. This article presents an analytical tool with visualization by exploiting the strengths of the MEG (magnetoencephalographic) neuroimaging technique. The tool automates MEG data import (in tSSS format), channel information extraction, time/frequency decomposition, and circular graph visualization (connectogram) for simple result inspection. For advanced users, the tool also provides magnitude squared coherence (MSC) values allowing personalized threshold levels, and the computation of default model from MEG data of control population. Default model obtained from healthy population data serves as a useful benchmark to diagnose and monitor neuronal recovery during treatment. The proposed tool further provides optional labels with international 10-10 system nomenclature in order to facilitate comparison studies with EEG (electroencephalography) sensor space. Potential applications in epilepsy and traumatic brain injury studies are also discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated asteroseismic peak detections

Science.gov (United States)

García Saravia Ortiz de Montellano, Andrés; Hekker, S.; Themeßl, N.

2018-05-01

Space observatories such as Kepler have provided data that can potentially revolutionize our understanding of stars. Through detailed asteroseismic analyses we are capable of determining fundamental stellar parameters and reveal the stellar internal structure with unprecedented accuracy. However, such detailed analyses, known as peak bagging, have so far been obtained for only a small percentage of the observed stars while most of the scientific potential of the available data remains unexplored. One of the major challenges in peak bagging is identifying how many solar-like oscillation modes are visible in a power density spectrum. Identification of oscillation modes is usually done by visual inspection that is time-consuming and has a degree of subjectivity. Here, we present a peak-detection algorithm especially suited for the detection of solar-like oscillations. It reliably characterizes the solar-like oscillations in a power density spectrum and estimates their parameters without human intervention. Furthermore, we provide a metric to characterize the false positive and false negative rates to provide further information about the reliability of a detected oscillation mode or the significance of a lack of detected oscillation modes. The algorithm presented here opens the possibility for detailed and automated peak bagging of the thousands of solar-like oscillators observed by Kepler.

Latest developments in on- and off-line inspection of bank notes during production

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Stephen C.

2004-06-01

The inspection of bank notes is a highly labour intensive process where traditionally every note on every sheet is inspected manually. However with the advent of more and more sophisticated security features, both visible and invisible, and the requirement of cost reduction in the printing process, it is clear that automation is required. Machines for the automatic inspection of bank notes have been on the market for the past 10 to 12 years, but recent developments in technology have enabled a new generation of detectors and machines to be developed. This paper focuses on the latest developments in both the off-line and on-line inspection of bank notes covering not only the visible spectrum but also a new range of detectors for inspection some of the more common invisible features used as covert features in today's bank notes.

Automated visual attention manipulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosse, T.; Lambalgen, R. van; Maanen, P.P. van; Treur, J.

2009-01-01

In this paper a system for visual attention manipulation is introduced and formally described. This system is part of the design of a software agent that supports naval crew in her task to compile a tactical picture of the situation in the field. A case study is described in hich the system is used

Detection of delamination defects in plate type fuel elements applying an automated C-Scan ultrasonic system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katchadjian, P.; Desimone, C.; Ziobrowski, C.; Garcia, A.

2002-01-01

For the inspection of plate type fuel elements to be used in Research Nuclear Reactors it was applied an immersion pulse-echo ultrasonic technique. For that reason an automated movement system was implemented according to the axes X, Y and Z that allows to automate the test and to show the results obtained in format of C-Scan, facilitating the immediate identification of possible defects and making repetitive the inspection. In this work problems found during the laboratory tests and factors that difficult the inspection are commented. Also the results of C-Scans over UMo fuel elements with pattern defects are shown. Finally, the main characteristics of the transducer with the one the better results were obtained are detailed. (author)

Online Preventative Non-Destructive Evaluation in Automated Fibre Placement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tonnaer, R.; Shroff, S.; Groves, R.M.

2016-01-01

The strict quality requirements for aerospace composite struc- tures give rise to costly quality control procedures. In automated bre placement (AFP) these procedures rely heavily on manual work and inspection. This research aims at performing preventative non-destructive evaluation of composite

Avoiding failures of steam turbine discs by automated ultrasonic inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morton, J.; Bird, C.R.

1994-01-01

Under certain conditions, stress corrosion cracking can cause catastrophic failure of steam turbine discs. Nuclear Electric has developed a range of inspection techniques for disc keyways, bores, buttons and blade attachments and has accumulated substantial experience on their use on plant. This paper gives examples of the techniques used and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques applied

Application of X-ray digital radiography to online automated inspection of interior assembly structures of complex products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han Yueping; Han Yan; Li Ruihong; Wang Liming

2009-01-01

The paper proposes an application of X-ray digital radiography to online automated inspection and recognition of the interior assembly structures of complex products by means of the multiple views techniques. First, a vertical hybrid projection function (VHPF) is proposed as the recognition feature of a two-dimensional image. VHPF combines an integral projection function and a standard deviation function so that it can reflect the mean and the variance of the pixels in the vertical direction in an image. Secondly, by considering the different importance grades of objects inside the product and the independence of these objects along the circumference, the paper presents a hierarchical recognition method and uses a neural network system to speed up the computation process with parallel operations. Thirdly, using the whole-orientation features of one standard swatch and by extracting its maximal system of linear independence as the feature basis, the issue of blind areas for recognition is resolved. Based on this approach, the first domestic X-ray multi-view digital detection system has been developed and applied to the online detection of objects containing complicated assembly structures.

Costs of cervical cancer screening and treatment using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cryotherapy in Ghana: the importance of scale.

OpenAIRE

Quentin, W; Adu-Sarkodie, Y; Terris-Prestholt, F; Legood, R; Opoku, BK; Mayaud, P

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the incremental costs of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cryotherapy at cervical cancer screening facilities in Ghana; to explore determinants of costs through modelling; and to estimate national scale-up and annual programme costs. METHODS: Resource-use data were collected at four out of six active VIA screening centres, and unit costs were ascertained to estimate the costs per woman of VIA and cryotherapy. Modelling and sensitivity analysis were used to ...

Evaluation of an automated karyotyping system for chromosome aberration analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prichard, H.M.

1987-01-01

Chromosome aberration analysis is a promising complement to conventional radiation dosimetry, particularly in the complex radiation fields encountered in the space environment. The capabilities of a recently developed automated karyotyping system were evaluated both to determine current capabilities and limitations and to suggest areas where future development should be emphasized. Cells exposed to radiometric chemicals and to photon and particulate radiation were evaluated by manual inspection and by automated karyotyping. It was demonstrated that the evaluated programs were appropriate for image digitization, storage, and transmission. However, automated and semi-automated scoring techniques must be advanced significantly if in-flight chromosome aberration analysis is to be practical. A degree of artificial intelligence may be necessary to realize this goal

Inspection device in liquid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagaoka, Etsuo.

1996-01-01

The present invention provides an inspection device in PWR reactor core in which inspection operations are made efficient by stabilizing a posture of the device in front-to-back, vertical and left-to-right directions by a simple structure. When the device conducts inspection while running in liquid, the front and the back directions of the device main body are inspected using a visual device while changing the posture by operating a front-to-back direction propulsion device and a right-to-left direction propulsion device, and a vertical direction propulsion device against to rolling, pitching and yawing of the device main body. In this case, a spherical magnet moves freely in the gravitational direction in a vibration-damping fluid in a non-magnetic spherical shell following the change of the posture of the device main body, in which the vibrations due to the movement of the spherical magnet is settled by the vibration-damping fluid thereby stabilizing the posture of the device main body. At a typical inspection posture, the settling effect is enhanced by the attraction force between the spherical magnets in the spherical shell and each of magnetic force-attracted magnetic members disposed to the outer circumference of the shell, and the posture of the device main body can be confirmed in front-to-back, right-to-left and vertical directions by each of the posture confirming magnetic sensors. (N.H.)

78 FR 2363 - Notification of Deletion of a System of Records; Automated Trust Funds Database

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-11

... [Docket No. APHIS-2012-0041] Notification of Deletion of a System of Records; Automated Trust Funds Database AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of deletion of a system... establishing the Automated Trust Funds (ATF) database system of records. The Federal Information Security...

Contract Report for Usage Inspection of KN-12 Transport Cask

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J. C.; Seo, K. S.; Bang, K. S.; Cho, I. J.; Kim, D. H.; Min, D. K.

2007-03-01

The usage inspection of the KN-12 spent nuclear fuel transport package was performed to receive the license for reuse. According to the Korea Atomic Energy Act, all type B transport package should receive and pass the usage inspection every five years. The KN-12 transport cask was designed to transport twelve spent PWR fuel assemblies under wet and dry conditions. The cask was developed and licensed in 2002 in accordance with the Korea and the IAEA's safe transport regulations. The areas of usage inspection include: visual inspection, nondestructive weld inspection, load test, maximum operating pressure test, leakage test, shielding test, thermal test, external surface contamination test. In the results of the usage inspection, the damage or defect could not found out and the performance of the cask was maintained according to the requirements of the regulation. Therefore, the usage inspection was successfully performed to acquire the license for the reuse

Bayesian ISOLA: new tool for automated centroid moment tensor inversion

Science.gov (United States)

Vackář, Jiří; Burjánek, Jan; Gallovič, František; Zahradník, Jiří; Clinton, John

2017-04-01

Focal mechanisms are important for understanding seismotectonics of a region, and they serve as a basic input for seismic hazard assessment. Usually, the point source approximation and the moment tensor (MT) are used. We have developed a new, fully automated tool for the centroid moment tensor (CMT) inversion in a Bayesian framework. It includes automated data retrieval, data selection where station components with various instrumental disturbances and high signal-to-noise are rejected, and full-waveform inversion in a space-time grid around a provided hypocenter. The method is innovative in the following aspects: (i) The CMT inversion is fully automated, no user interaction is required, although the details of the process can be visually inspected latter on many figures which are automatically plotted.(ii) The automated process includes detection of disturbances based on MouseTrap code, so disturbed recordings do not affect inversion.(iii) A data covariance matrix calculated from pre-event noise yields an automated weighting of the station recordings according to their noise levels and also serves as an automated frequency filter suppressing noisy frequencies.(iv) Bayesian approach is used, so not only the best solution is obtained, but also the posterior probability density function.(v) A space-time grid search effectively combined with the least-squares inversion of moment tensor components speeds up the inversion and allows to obtain more accurate results compared to stochastic methods. The method has been tested on synthetic and observed data. It has been tested by comparison with manually processed moment tensors of all events greater than M≥3 in the Swiss catalogue over 16 years using data available at the Swiss data center (http://arclink.ethz.ch). The quality of the results of the presented automated process is comparable with careful manual processing of data. The software package programmed in Python has been designed to be as versatile as possible in

Whole surface image reconstruction for machine vision inspection of fruit

Science.gov (United States)

Reese, D. Y.; Lefcourt, A. M.; Kim, M. S.; Lo, Y. M.

2007-09-01

Automated imaging systems offer the potential to inspect the quality and safety of fruits and vegetables consumed by the public. Current automated inspection systems allow fruit such as apples to be sorted for quality issues including color and size by looking at a portion of the surface of each fruit. However, to inspect for defects and contamination, the whole surface of each fruit must be imaged. The goal of this project was to develop an effective and economical method for whole surface imaging of apples using mirrors and a single camera. Challenges include mapping the concave stem and calyx regions. To allow the entire surface of an apple to be imaged, apples were suspended or rolled above the mirrors using two parallel music wires. A camera above the apples captured 90 images per sec (640 by 480 pixels). Single or multiple flat or concave mirrors were mounted around the apple in various configurations to maximize surface imaging. Data suggest that the use of two flat mirrors provides inadequate coverage of a fruit but using two parabolic concave mirrors allows the entire surface to be mapped. Parabolic concave mirrors magnify images, which results in greater pixel resolution and reduced distortion. This result suggests that a single camera with two parabolic concave mirrors can be a cost-effective method for whole surface imaging.

Avoiding failures of steam turbine discs by automated ultrasonic inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bird, C.R.; Morton, J.

1994-01-01

Under certain conditions, stress corrosion cracking can cause catastrophic failure of steam turbine discs. Nuclear Electric has developed a range of inspection techniques for disc keyways, bores, buttons and blade attachments and has accumulated substantial experience on their use on plant. This paper gives examples of the techniques used and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques applied. (Author)

ROBOTIC TANK INSPECTION END EFFECTOR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rachel Landry

1999-01-01

The objective of this contract between Oceaneering Space Systems (OSS) and the Department of Energy (DOE) was to provide a tool for the DOE to inspect the inside tank walls of underground radioactive waste storage tanks in their tank farms. Some of these tanks are suspected to have leaks, but the harsh nature of the environment within the tanks precludes human inspection of tank walls. As a result of these conditions only a few inspection methods can fulfill this task. Of the methods available, OSS chose to pursue Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM), because it does not require clean surfaces for inspection, nor any contact with the Surface being inspected, and introduces no extra by-products in the inspection process (no coupling fluids or residues are left behind). The tool produced by OSS is the Robotic Tank Inspection End Effector (RTIEE), which is initially deployed on the tip of the Light Duty Utility Arm (LDUA). The RTEE combines ACFM with a color video camera for both electromagnetic and visual inspection The complete package consists of an end effector, its corresponding electronics and software, and a user's manual to guide the operator through an inspection. The system has both coarse and fine inspection modes and allows the user to catalog defects and suspected areas of leakage in a database for further examination, which may lead to emptying the tank for repair, decommissioning, etc.. The following is an updated report to OSS document OSS-21100-7002, which was submitted in 1995. During the course of the contract, two related sub-tasks arose, the Wall and Coating Thickness Sensor and the Vacuum Scarifying and Sampling Tool Assembly. The first of these sub-tasks was intended to evaluate the corrosion and wall thinning of 55-gallon steel drums. The second was retrieved and characterized the waste material trapped inside the annulus region of the underground tanks on the DOE's tank farms. While these sub-tasks were derived from the original intent

On site PWR fuel inspection measurements for operational and design verification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

The on-site inspection of irradiated Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) fuel and Non-Fuel Bearing Components (NFBC) is typically limited to visual inspections during refuelings using underwater TV cameras and is intended primarily to confirm whether the components will continue in operation. These inspections do not normally provide data for design verification nor information to benefit future fuel designs. Japanese PWR utilities and Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. designed, built, and performed demonstration tests of on-site inspection equipment that confirms operational readiness of PWR fuel and NFBC and also gathers data for design verification of these components. 4 figs, 3 tabs

Full-scale testing of waste package inspection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yagi, T.; Kuribayashi, H.; Moriya, Y.; Fujisawa, H.; Takebayashi, N.

1989-01-01

In land disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) in Japan, it is legally required that the waste packages to be disposed of be inspected for conformance to applicable technical regulations prior to shipment from each existing power station. JGC has constructed a fully automatic waste package inspection system for the purpose of obtaining the required design data and proving the performance of the system. This system consists of three inspection units (for visual inspection, surface contamination/dose rate measurement and radioactivity/weight measurement), a labelling unit, a centralized control unit and a drum handling unit. The outstanding features of the system are as follows: The equipment and components are modularized and designed to be of the most compact size and the quality control functions are performed by an advanced centralized control system. The authors discuss how, as a result of the full-scale testing, it has been confirmed that this system satisfies all the performance requirements for the inspection of disposal packages

In service inspection of SUPERPHENIX 1 vessels: MIR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asty, M.; Viard, J.; Lerat, B.; Saglio, R.

1985-01-01

Although no in-service inspection constraints were imposed on the Phenix vessels, the Safety Authorities asked that the design of SUPERPHENIX 1 makes it possible to monitor throughout the lifetime of the reactor, surface and internal defects on the main vessel. A pool design and the presence of heat baffles inside the main vessel make access from the inside of the vessel impossible. Thus, an inspection can only be performed from the outside of the main vessel: the distance between the walls of the main and safety vessels is such that an inspection device can be introduced into the corresponding space. As the design of the reactor precludes radiographic inspection, the method which was selected for monitoring internal defects in the main vessel is ultrasonics. However, the anisotropic structure of austenitic stainless steel welds limits the performance of this technique. The authors present the in-service inspection device, MIR, which has been specially developed for the visual and ultrasonic examination of SUPERPHENIX 1 vessels

Line-scan inspection of conifer seedlings

Science.gov (United States)

Rigney, Michael P.; Kranzler, Glenn A.

1993-05-01

Almost two billion conifer seedlings are produced in the U.S. each year to support reforestation efforts. Seedlings are graded manually to improve viability after transplanting. Manual grading is labor-intensive and subject to human variability. Our previous research demonstrated the feasibility of automated tree seedling inspection with machine vision. Here we describe a system based on line-scan imaging, providing a three-fold increase in resolution and inspection rate. A key aspect of the system is automatic recognition of the seedling root collar. Root collar diameter, shoot height, and projected shoot and root areas are measured. Sturdiness ratio and shoot/root ratio are computed. Grade is determined by comparing measured features with pre-defined set points. Seedlings are automatically sorted. The precision of machine vision and manual measurements was determined in tests at a commercial forest nursery. Manual measurements of stem diameter, shoot height, and sturdiness ratio had standard deviations three times those of machine vision measurements. Projected shoot area was highly correlated (r2 equals 0.90) with shoot volume. Projected root area had good correlation (r2 equals 0.80) with root volume. Seedlings were inspected at rates as high as ten per second.

Detección y seguimiento con inspección visual del cérvix para la prevención del cáncer cervicouterino en las zonas rurales de México Screening and follow-up for cervical cancer prevention in rural Mexico using visual inspection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo Pérez-Cruz

2005-02-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Se comparan los nuevos métodos de detección de lesiones preneoplásicas del cérvix-inspección visual con ácido acético (IVAA e inspección visual con ácido acético y magnificación (IVAM con el aparato AviScopeMR- y el método tradicional de detección por citología. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: El estudio se llevó a cabo entre octubre de 1998 y diciembre de 2000, en dos zonas de la región de La Mixteca, en Oaxaca, México. El diseño de estudio fue de tipo ensayo comunitario. El IVAA correspondió a un brazo del estudio y el IVAM a otro; ambos métodos de detección se practicaron en mujeres que tenían entre 20 y 65 años de edad. Se incluyeron 2 240 mujeres en el brazo IVAA y 2 542 en el brazo IVAM. Las mujeres en las que la inspección visual dio un resultado positivo y una submuestra de las mujeres con resultado negativo, fueron referidas a colposcopía y, en caso de ser necesario, a biopsia de tejido cervicouterino. El análisis estadístico se presenta descriptivamente y los grupos se compararon con la prueba de Ji-cuadrada. Se presentan además los resultados de los valores diagnósticos de IVAA e IVAM, comparados con el diagnóstico por colposcopía y biopsia. RESULTADOS: El método IVAM detectó un mayor porcentaje de mujeres identificadas con alguna anomalía (16.3% que el IVAA (3.4%, así como de mujeres normales (58.5% vs. 53.8%, respectivamente. Por otra parte, el método IVAA identificó a más mujeres con cambios benignos (41.2% que el IVAM (19.6%. Este último tuvo una mayor sensibilidad (p>0.05 y una menor especificidad (pOBJECTIVE: To compare the standard cervical cancer screening procedure -the Papanicolaou test or Pap smear- with detection through visual inspection using acetic acid (VIA, and visual inspection with acetic acid assisted by Aviscope (VIAM. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted between October 1998 and December 2000, in two Mixteca regions in Oaxaca, Mexico. A field trial design was used to

Hydro-Quebec inspection robot RIT-LRG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Champagne, D.; Rinfret, F.; Bourgault, Y.G.

2008-01-01

Hydro Quebec's Research Centre (IREQ), has developed a variety of inspection tools over the years. The Metar bracelet for the feeder tubes, the REC robot for the heat exchanger and the RIT robot for the Delayed Neutron system just to name a few. This paper discusses with the successful deployment of the Camera Probe Positioning robot for Visual Inspection of the sample lines of the delayed neutron system of CANDU power plants. This RIT robot has three possible configurations (Face, Cabinet and LRG configurations) and has remained a prototype version although it has been used over the years in many outage inspection campaigns since 1997. The main advantages of using this robot are: the significant reduction in radiation exposure, the high quality of the data collected and the archiving of inspection data for further analysis and reports. In 2007, Gentilly-2 (G-2), decided to industrialize the LRG configuration of the RIT robot and to designate it the standard tool for the inspection of the Delayed Neutron System. An improved RIT-LRG robot, along with its control box and command station was developed. The software had to be rewritten requiring an ergonomics analysis of user tasks, work station and interface display. These issues included both physical and cognitive requirements aspects. The two principal topics of this paper will be on the Inspection Robot Technology developed and highlights of the 2008 outage inspection campaign. (author)

Hydro-Quebec inspection robot RIT-LRG

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Champagne, D., E-mail: champagne.dominique@ireq.ca [Inst. de recherche d' Hydro-Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Rinfret, F.; Bourgault, Y.G., E-mail: rinfret.francois@hydro.qc.ca, E-mail: bourgault.yves.g@hydro.qc.ca [Hydro-Quebec, Becancour, Quebec (Canada)

2008-07-01

Hydro Quebec's Research Centre (IREQ), has developed a variety of inspection tools over the years. The Metar bracelet for the feeder tubes, the REC robot for the heat exchanger and the RIT robot for the Delayed Neutron system just to name a few. This paper discusses with the successful deployment of the Camera Probe Positioning robot for Visual Inspection of the sample lines of the delayed neutron system of CANDU power plants. This RIT robot has three possible configurations (Face, Cabinet and LRG configurations) and has remained a prototype version although it has been used over the years in many outage inspection campaigns since 1997. The main advantages of using this robot are: the significant reduction in radiation exposure, the high quality of the data collected and the archiving of inspection data for further analysis and reports. In 2007, Gentilly-2 (G-2), decided to industrialize the LRG configuration of the RIT robot and to designate it the standard tool for the inspection of the Delayed Neutron System. An improved RIT-LRG robot, along with its control box and command station was developed. The software had to be rewritten requiring an ergonomics analysis of user tasks, work station and interface display. These issues included both physical and cognitive requirements aspects. The two principal topics of this paper will be on the Inspection Robot Technology developed and highlights of the 2008 outage inspection campaign. (author)

Development of Remote Inspection Systems with the Java Applet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Yoo Rark; Lee, Jae Cheol; Kim, Jae Hee

2005-01-01

The world wide web and java are powerful networking technologies on the internet. An applet is a program written in the java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way as an image is included. When we use a Java technology-enabled browser to view a page that contains an applet, the applet code is transferred to a client's system and executed by the browser's Java Virtual Machine (JVM). We have developed two remote inspection systems for a reactor wall inspection and guide tube spilt pin inspection based on the java and traditional programming language. The java is used on a GUI(graphic user interface) and the traditional visual C++ programming language is used to control the inspection equipments

ARCHER-Advanced System for RPVH Inspection and Repair

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomasic, Tomislav; Vukovic, Igor; Bakic, Ante

2014-01-01

The reactor pressure vessel head (RPVH) is an integral part of the reactor coolant pressure boundary. Its integrity is important for the safe and reliable operation of the nuclear power plant (NPP). After detection of the leakage and cracks in French NPP, followed by another that occurred in NPP in USA, methods and frequency of inspection were defined, and are strictly regulated by the US NRC Order EA-03-009 (substituted lately by ASME Code Case N-791-1) since 2003. Usual scope of inspection from inner side of RPVH comprises of visual inspection of the surface, ultrasonic testing (UT) and eddy current testing (ET) of the penetration nozzle and ET of the J-groove weld and nozzle outside surface below the weld. ARCHER, new INETEC's manipulator, is designed to provide full scope inspection of the RPVH, by use of various test modules and by performing the surface repair action on J-groove weld. It is adjustable to work with different types of penetration nozzles and thermal sleeves on both VVER and PWR type of NPP. Due to complex geometry each module is specially designed for particular type of examination. Modules are exchanged through the docking system without need for personnel to enter under the head region, thus reducing the personnel's exposure to the ionizing radiation. The end effectors are used to determine the surface flaws or cracks on inner diameter surface of penetration nozzle gap. It guides a slim sword-like probe which carries a pair of TOFD transducers for detection and sizing of circumferential and axial cracks, an eddy current cross-wounded coil, and a zero-degree UT probe through a gap between the penetration nozzle and thermal sleeve. In case of a non-sleeved penetration nozzle, an open housing module is used. J-groove module is designed to fit geometry of the J-groove weld of penetration nozzle, vent pipe and funnel guide. The whole weld area (2' mm on shell side and 1/2' on nozzle side) is covered by two specially designed

Automated registration of tail bleeding in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Johansen, Peter B; Henriksen, Lars; Andresen, Per R; Lauritzen, Brian; Jensen, Kåre L; Juhl, Trine N; Tranholm, Mikael

2008-05-01

An automated system for registration of tail bleeding in rats using a camera and a user-designed PC-based software program has been developed. The live and processed images are displayed on the screen and are exported together with a text file for later statistical processing of the data allowing calculation of e.g. number of bleeding episodes, bleeding times and bleeding areas. Proof-of-principle was achieved when the camera captured the blood stream after infusion of rat whole blood into saline. Suitability was assessed by recording of bleeding profiles in heparin-treated rats, demonstrating that the system was able to capture on/off bleedings and that the data transfer and analysis were conducted successfully. Then, bleeding profiles were visually recorded by two independent observers simultaneously with the automated recordings after tail transection in untreated rats. Linear relationships were found in the number of bleedings, demonstrating, however, a statistically significant difference in the recording of bleeding episodes between observers. Also, the bleeding time was longer for visual compared to automated recording. No correlation was found between blood loss and bleeding time in untreated rats, but in heparinized rats a correlation was suggested. Finally, the blood loss correlated with the automated recording of bleeding area. In conclusion, the automated system has proven suitable for replacing visual recordings of tail bleedings in rats. Inter-observer differences can be eliminated, monotonous repetitive work avoided, and a higher through-put of animals in less time achieved. The automated system will lead to an increased understanding of the nature of bleeding following tail transection in different rodent models.

Contract Report for Usage Inspection of KN-12 Transport Cask

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, J. C.; Seo, K. S.; Bang, K. S.; Cho, I. J.; Kim, D. H.; Min, D. K

2007-03-15

The usage inspection of the KN-12 spent nuclear fuel transport package was performed to receive the license for reuse. According to the Korea Atomic Energy Act, all type B transport package should receive and pass the usage inspection every five years. The KN-12 transport cask was designed to transport twelve spent PWR fuel assemblies under wet and dry conditions. The cask was developed and licensed in 2002 in accordance with the Korea and the IAEA's safe transport regulations. The areas of usage inspection include: visual inspection, nondestructive weld inspection, load test, maximum operating pressure test, leakage test, shielding test, thermal test, external surface contamination test. In the results of the usage inspection, the damage or defect could not found out and the performance of the cask was maintained according to the requirements of the regulation. Therefore, the usage inspection was successfully performed to acquire the license for the reuse.

A Simulation Tool for Ultrasonic Inspection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krishnamurthy, Adarsh; Mohan, K. V.; Karthikeyan, Soumya; Krishnamurthy, C. V.; Balasubramaniam, Krishnan [Indian Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu (India)

2006-06-15

A simulation program SIMULTSONIC is under development at CNDE to help determine and/or help optimize ultrasonic probe locations for inspection of complex components. SIMULTSONIC provides a ray-trace based assessment for immersion and contact modes of inspection. The code written in Visual C++ operating in Microsoft Windows environment provides an interactive user interface. In this paper, a description of the various features of SIMULTSONIC is given followed by examples illustrating the capability of SIMULTSONIC to deal with inspection of canonical objects such as pipes. In particular, the use of SIMULTSONIC in the inspection of very thin-walled pipes (with 450 urn wall thickness) is described. Ray trace based assessment was done using SIMULTSONIC to determine the standoff distance and the angle of oblique incidence for an immersion mode focused transducer. A 3-cycle Hanning window pulse was chosen for simulations. Experiments were carried out to validate the simulations. The A-scans and the associated B-Scan images obtained through simulations show good correlation with experimental results, both with the arrival time of the signal as well as with the signal amplitudes

Robotic system for the servicing of the orbiter thermal protection system

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Todd; Bennett, Richard; Dowling, Kevin; Manouchehri, Davoud; Cooper, Eric; Cowan, Cregg

1994-01-01

This paper describes the design and development of a mobile robotic system to process orbiter thermal protection system (TPS) tiles. This work was justified by a TPS automation study which identified tile rewaterproofing and visual inspection as excellent applications for robotic automation.

SU-C-9A-02: Structured Noise Index as An Automated Quality Control for Nuclear Medicine: A Two Year Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nelson, J; Christianson, O; Samei, E [Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (United States)

2014-06-01

Purpose: Flood-field uniformity evaluation is an essential element in the assessment of nuclear medicine (NM) gamma cameras. It serves as the central element of the quality control (QC) program, acquired and analyzed on a daily basis prior to clinical imaging. Uniformity images are traditionally analyzed using pixel value-based metrics which often fail to capture subtle structure and patterns caused by changes in gamma camera performance requiring additional visual inspection which is subjective and time demanding. The goal of this project was to develop and implement a robust QC metrology for NM that is effective in identifying non-uniformity issues, reporting issues in a timely manner for efficient correction prior to clinical involvement, all incorporated into an automated effortless workflow, and to characterize the program over a two year period. Methods: A new quantitative uniformity analysis metric was developed based on 2D noise power spectrum metrology and confirmed based on expert observer visual analysis. The metric, termed Structured Noise Index (SNI) was then integrated into an automated program to analyze, archive, and report on daily NM QC uniformity images. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated over a period of 2 years. Results: The SNI metric successfully identified visually apparent non-uniformities overlooked by the pixel valuebased analysis methods. Implementation of the program has resulted in nonuniformity identification in about 12% of daily flood images. In addition, due to the vigilance of staff response, the percentage of days exceeding trigger value shows a decline over time. Conclusion: The SNI provides a robust quantification of the NM performance of gamma camera uniformity. It operates seamlessly across a fleet of multiple camera models. The automated process provides effective workflow within the NM spectra between physicist, technologist, and clinical engineer. The reliability of this process has made it the preferred

Real-time inspection of metal laminates by means of CNNs

Science.gov (United States)

Preciado, Victor M.; Guinea, Domingo; Montufar-Chaveznava, Rodrigo; Vicente, Jose

2001-04-01

Analog CNN array computer arises as an alternative to traditional digital processors in many industrial inspection like visual quality control of metal laminants, capable of make in a single chip Tera equivalent operations per second. A 4096 analog CNN processor array is able to perform complex space-time image analysis, being much faster than a camera- computer system in continuous inspection applications. Both chips have been implemented in CMOS technology and they are managed by a 32-bit high-performance low-cost micro- controller that closes the pan, tilt, lighting, focus and zoom loops required in the implementation of the active vision strategies. Several convolution masks for the Cellular Processors has been selected to detect particular changes in the texture, size, direction or orientation of the image entities, reprogramming `on the fly' the pixel resolution of shape when necessary. Laboratory results present these Cellular Processors and multiple resolution imager circuits as a promising architecture for visual inspection of industrial processes in real time.

Improvements in televisual and photographic inspections of AGRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayter, R.; Wadsworth, A.

1988-01-01

The visual inspection techniques and equipment used at AGR Power Stations have been improved and updated in the light of need and technological advance, new equipment being developed and introduced where necessary. Specifically this report covers the development and use of: a short TRIUMPH compatible photographic camera 600 mm long x 75 mm dia taking 50 shots on a 35 mm film; a 240 mm dia photographic pod taking high quality 70 mm format photographs of large in-reactor volumes; a photographic camera of cross section 37 x 17 mm for the inspection of helically wound AGR boilers and the subsequent development of this latter device into a state of the art TV inspection camera. (author)

Optimizing and joining future safeguards efforts by 'remote inspections'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zendel, M.; Khlebnikov, N.

2009-01-01

Full-text: Remote inspections have a large potential to save inspection effort in future routine safeguards implementation. Such inspections involve remote activities based on the analysis of data acquired in the field without the physical presence of an inspector, shifting the inspectors' priorities further toward unannounced inspections, complementary access activities and data evaluation. Large, automated and complex facilities require facility resident and specific safeguards equipment systems with features for unattended and remotely controlled operation as well as being integrated in the nuclear process. In many instances the use of such equipment jointly with the SSAC/RSAC and the operator is foreseen to achieve affordable effectiveness with a minimum level of intrusiveness to the facility operation. Where it becomes possible to achieve independent conclusions by this approach, the IAEA would make full use of the SSAC/RSAC, involving State inspectors and/or facility operators to operate inspection systems under remotely controlled IAEA mechanisms. These mechanisms would include documented procedures for routine joint-use, defining arrangements for data sharing, physical security and authentication mechanisms, recalibration and use of standards and software, maintenance, repair, storage and transportation. The level of cooperation and willingness of a State to implement such measures requested and properly justified by the IAEA will demonstrate its commitment to full transparency in its nuclear activities. Examples of existing remote inspection activities, including joint-use activities will be discussed. The future potential of remote inspections will be assessed considering technical developments and increased needs for process monitoring. Enhanced cooperation with SSAC/RSAC within the framework of remote inspections could further optimize the IAEA's inspection efforts while at the same time maintaining effective safeguards implementation. (author)

Automating spectral measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Fred T.

2008-09-01

This paper discusses the architecture of software utilized in spectroscopic measurements. As optical coatings become more sophisticated, there is mounting need to automate data acquisition (DAQ) from spectrophotometers. Such need is exacerbated when 100% inspection is required, ancillary devices are utilized, cost reduction is crucial, or security is vital. While instrument manufacturers normally provide point-and-click DAQ software, an application programming interface (API) may be missing. In such cases automation is impossible or expensive. An API is typically provided in libraries (*.dll, *.ocx) which may be embedded in user-developed applications. Users can thereby implement DAQ automation in several Windows languages. Another possibility, developed by FTG as an alternative to instrument manufacturers' software, is the ActiveX application (*.exe). ActiveX, a component of many Windows applications, provides means for programming and interoperability. This architecture permits a point-and-click program to act as automation client and server. Excel, for example, can control and be controlled by DAQ applications. Most importantly, ActiveX permits ancillary devices such as barcode readers and XY-stages to be easily and economically integrated into scanning procedures. Since an ActiveX application has its own user-interface, it can be independently tested. The ActiveX application then runs (visibly or invisibly) under DAQ software control. Automation capabilities are accessed via a built-in spectro-BASIC language with industry-standard (VBA-compatible) syntax. Supplementing ActiveX, spectro-BASIC also includes auxiliary serial port commands for interfacing programmable logic controllers (PLC). A typical application is automatic filter handling.

Remote Inspection Techniques for Reactor Internals of Liquid Metal Reactor by using Ultrasonic Waveguide Sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joo, Young Sang; Kim, Seok Hun; Lee, Jae Han

2006-02-01

The primary components such as a reactor core, heat exchangers, pumps and internal structures of a liquid metal reactor (LMR) are submerged in hot sodium of reactor vessel. The division 3 of ASME code section XI specifies the visual inspection and continuous monitoring as major in-service inspection (ISI) methods of reactor internal structures. Reactor core and internal structures of LMR can not be visually examined due to an opaque liquid sodium. The under-sodium viewing and remote inspection techniques by using an ultrasonic wave should be applied for the in-service inspection of reactor internals. The remote inspection techniques using ultrasonic wave have been developed and applied for the visualization and ISI of reactor internals. The under sodium viewing technique has a limitation for the application of LMR due to the high temperature and irradiation environment. In this study, an ultrasonic waveguide sensor with a strip plate has been developed for an application to the under-sodium viewing and remote inspection. The Lamb wave propagation of a waveguide sensor has been analyzed and the zero-order antisymmetric A 0 plate wave was selected as the application mode of the sensor. The A 0 plate wave can be propagated in the dispersive low frequency range by using a liquid wedge clamped to the waveguide. A new technique is presented which is capable of steering the radiation beam angle of a waveguide sensor without a mechanical movement of the sensor assembly. The steering function of the ultrasonic radiation beam can be achieved by a frequency tuning method of the excitation pulse in the dispersive range of the A 0 mode. The technique provides an opportunity to overcome the scanning limitation of a waveguide sensor. The beam steering function has been evaluated by an experimental verification. The ultrasonic C-scanning experiments are performed in water and the feasibility of the ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been verified. The various remote inspection

Automated ultrasonic testing--capabilities, limitations and methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beller, L.S.; Mikesell, C.R.

1977-01-01

The requirements for precision and reproducibility of ultrasonic testing during inservice inspection of nuclear reactors are both quantitatively and qualitatively more severe than most current practice in the field can provide. An automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) system, which provides a significant advancement in field examination capabilities, is described. Properties of the system, its application, and typical results are discussed

Image processing and machine learning techniques to automate diagnosis of Lugol's iodine cervigrams for a low-cost point-of-care digital colposcope

Science.gov (United States)

Asiedu, Mercy Nyamewaa; Simhal, Anish; Lam, Christopher T.; Mueller, Jenna; Chaudhary, Usamah; Schmitt, John W.; Sapiro, Guillermo; Ramanujam, Nimmi

2018-02-01

The world health organization recommends visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and/or Lugol's Iodine (VILI) for cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings. Human interpretation of diagnostic indicators for visual inspection is qualitative, subjective, and has high inter-observer discordance, which could lead both to adverse outcomes for the patient and unnecessary follow-ups. In this work, we a simple method for automatic feature extraction and classification for Lugol's Iodine cervigrams acquired with a low-cost, miniature, digital colposcope. Algorithms to preprocess expert physician-labelled cervigrams and to extract simple but powerful color-based features are introduced. The features are used to train a support vector machine model to classify cervigrams based on expert physician labels. The selected framework achieved a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 89.2%, 66.7% and 80.6% with majority diagnosis of the expert physicians in discriminating cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN +) relative to normal tissues. The proposed classifier also achieved an area under the curve of 84 when trained with majority diagnosis of the expert physicians. The results suggest that utilizing simple color-based features may enable unbiased automation of VILI cervigrams, opening the door to a full system of low-cost data acquisition complemented with automatic interpretation.

Comparison of Threshold Saccadic Vector Optokinetic Perimetry (SVOP) and Standard Automated Perimetry (SAP) in Glaucoma. Part II: Patterns of Visual Field Loss and Acceptability.

Science.gov (United States)

McTrusty, Alice D; Cameron, Lorraine A; Perperidis, Antonios; Brash, Harry M; Tatham, Andrew J; Agarwal, Pankaj K; Murray, Ian C; Fleck, Brian W; Minns, Robert A

2017-09-01

We compared patterns of visual field loss detected by standard automated perimetry (SAP) to saccadic vector optokinetic perimetry (SVOP) and examined patient perceptions of each test. A cross-sectional study was done of 58 healthy subjects and 103 with glaucoma who were tested using SAP and two versions of SVOP (v1 and v2). Visual fields from both devices were categorized by masked graders as: 0, normal; 1, paracentral defect; 2, nasal step; 3, arcuate defect; 4, altitudinal; 5, biarcuate; and 6, end-stage field loss. SVOP and SAP classifications were cross-tabulated. Subjects completed a questionnaire on their opinions of each test. We analyzed 142 (v1) and 111 (v2) SVOP and SAP test pairs. SVOP v2 had a sensitivity of 97.7% and specificity of 77.9% for identifying normal versus abnormal visual fields. SAP and SVOP v2 classifications showed complete agreement in 54% of glaucoma patients, with a further 23% disagreeing by one category. On repeat testing, 86% of SVOP v2 classifications agreed with the previous test, compared to 91% of SAP classifications; 71% of subjects preferred SVOP compared to 20% who preferred SAP. Eye-tracking perimetry can be used to obtain threshold visual field sensitivity values in patients with glaucoma and produce maps of visual field defects, with patterns exhibiting close agreement to SAP. Patients preferred eye-tracking perimetry compared to SAP. This first report of threshold eye tracking perimetry shows good agreement with conventional automated perimetry and provides a benchmark for future iterations.

Robots in pipe and vessel inspection: past, present, and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller, T.A.; Tyndall, J.F.

1984-01-01

Over the past several decades, remotely operated scanners have been employed to inspect piping and pressure vessels. These devices in their early forms were manually controlled manipulators functioning as mere extensions of the operator. With the addition of limit sensing, speed control, and positional feedback and display, the early manipulators became primitive robots. By adding computer controls with their degree of intelligence to the devices, they achieved the status of robots. Future applications of vision, adaptive control, proximity sensing, and pattern recognition will bring these devices to a level of intelligence that will make automated robotic inspection of pipes and pressure vessels a true reality

Overview of steam generator tube-inspection technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obrutsky, L.; Renaud, J.; Lakhan, R.

2014-01-01

Degradation of steam generator (SG) tubing due to both mechanical and corrosion modes has resulted in extensive repairs and replacement of SGs around the world. The variety of degradation modes challenges the integrity of SG tubing and, therefore, the stations' reliability. Inspection and monitoring aimed at timely detection and characterization of the degradation is a key element for ensuring tube integrity. Up to the early-70's, the in-service inspection of SG tubing was carried out using single-frequency eddy current testing (ET) bobbin coils, which were adequate for the detection of volumetric degradation. By the mid-80's, additional modes of degradation such as pitting, intergranular attack, and axial and circumferential inside or outside diameter stress corrosion cracking had to be addressed. The need for timely, fast detection and characterization of these diverse modes of degradation motivated the development in the 90's of inspection systems based on advanced probe technology coupled with versatile instruments operated by fast computers and remote communication systems. SG inspection systems have progressed in the new millennium to a much higher level of automation, efficiency and reliability. Also, the role of Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) has evolved from simple detection tools to diagnostic tools that provide input into integrity assessment decisions, fitness-far-service and operational assessments. This new role was motivated by tighter regulatory requirements to assure the safety of the public and the environment, better SG life management strategies and often self-imposed regulations. It led to the development of advanced probe technologies, more reliable and versatile instruments and robotics, better training and qualification of personnel and better data management and analysis systems. This paper provides a brief historical perspective regarding the evolution of SG inspections and analyzes the motivations behind that evolution. It presents an

In-field inspection support software: A status report on the Common Inspection On-site Software Package (CIOSP) project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novatchev, Dimitre; Titov, Pavel; Siradjov, Bakhtiiar; Vlad, Ioan; Xiao Jing

2001-01-01

Inspection (SNRI) plug-in is planned for this year. Extensive beta and field testing of the CIOSP software has been performed at several facilities in Japan and Indonesia. The feedback received has been reflected in the software and the system is ready to be accepted for inspection use. The significance of this work cannot be underestimated. It will allow facilities to be supported by a single automated tool thus streamlining and improving efficiency of inspection activities. In addition, support for new requirements can be delivered more rapidly. (author)

Automatic inspection of surface defects in die castings after machining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. J. Świłło

2011-07-01

Full Text Available A new camera based machine vision system for the automatic inspection of surface defects in aluminum die casting was developed by the authors. The problem of surface defects in aluminum die casting is widespread throughout the foundry industry and their detection is of paramount importance in maintaining product quality. The casting surfaces are the most highly loaded regions of materials and components. Mechanical and thermal loads as well as corrosion or irradiation attacks are directed primarily at the surface of the castings. Depending on part design and processing techniques, castings may develop surface discontinuities such as cracks or tears, inclusions due to chemical reactions or foreign material in the molten metal, and pores that greatly influence the material ability to withstand these loads. Surface defects may act as a stress concentrator initiating a fracture point. If a pressure is applied in this area, the casting can fracture. The human visual system is well adapted to perform in areas of variety and change; the visual inspection processes, on the other hand, require observing the same type of image repeatedly to detect anomalies. Slow, expensive, erratic inspection usually is the result. Computer based visual inspection provides a viable alternative to human inspectors. Developed by authors machine vision system uses an image processing algorithm based on modified Laplacian of Gaussian edge detection method to detect defects with different sizes and shapes. The defect inspection algorithm consists of three parameters. One is a parameter of defects sensitivity, the second parameter is a threshold level and the third parameter is to identify the detected defects size and shape. The machine vision system has been successfully tested for the different types of defects on the surface of castings.

Inspection activities of other strategic points (OSPs) at Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaifuki, Yukinobu; Ebata, Takashi; Nakano, Sadayuki; Fujimaki, Kazunori

2008-01-01

At Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP), Active Test (AT) using actual spent fuels for the final confirmation of the equipment and the system has been performed since March 31, 2006 toward the commercial operation. The safeguards inspection during AT is required in the same manner as commercial operation condition because plutonium is handled. In RRP automated verification systems are established by using unattended verification systems including a number of process monitoring systems along with main plutonium handling process from the spent fuel storage until the MOX product storages. Even under the modernized safeguards, inspection activities at Other Strategic Points (OSPs) are required to confirm plant status in accordance with requirements of the IAEA safeguards criteria. This paper presents procedures and inspection activities at OSPs which has been implemented in RRP since start of AT. (author)

Comparison of Visual Assessment of Breast Density in BI-RADS 4th and 5th Editions With Automated Volumetric Measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Youk, Ji Hyun; Kim, So Jung; Son, Eun Ju; Gweon, Hye Mi; Kim, Jeong-Ah

2017-09-01

The purpose of this study was to compare visual assessments of mammographic breast density by radiologists using BI-RADS 4th and 5th editions in correlation with automated volumetric breast density measurements. A total of 337 consecutive full-field digital mammographic examinations with standard views were retrospectively assessed by two radiologists for mammographic breast density according to BI-RADS 4th and 5th editions. Fully automated measurement of the volume of fibroglandular tissue and total breast and percentage breast density was performed with a commercially available software program. Interobserver and intraobserver agreement was assessed with kappa statistics. The distributions of breast density categories for both editions of BI-RADS were compared and correlated with volumetric data. Interobserver agreement on breast density category was moderate to substantial (κ = 0.58-0.63) with use of BI-RADS 4th edition and substantial (κ = 0.63-0.66) with use of the 5th edition but without significant difference between the two editions. For intraobserver agreement between the two editions, the distributions of density category were significantly different (p density data, including percentage breast density, were significantly different among density categories (p density assessment had good correlation with visual assessment for both editions of BI-RADS.

PWR reactor vessel in-service-inspection according to RSEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Algarotti, Marc; Dubois, Philippe; Hernandez, Luc; Landez, Jean Paul

2006-01-01

Nuclear services experience Framatome ANP (an AREVA and Siemens company) has designed and constructed 86 Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) around the world including the three units lately commissioned at Ling Ao in the People's Republic of China and ANGRA 2 in Brazil; the company provided general and specialized outage services supporting numerous outages. Along with the American and German subsidiaries, Framatome ANP Inc. and Framatome ANP GmbH, Framatome ANP is among the world leading nuclear services providers, having experience of over 500 PWR outages on 4 continents, with current involvement in more than 50 PWR outages per year. Framatome ANP's experience in the examinations of reactor components began in the 1970's. Since then, each unit (American, French and German companies) developed automated NDT inspection systems and carried out pre-service and ISI (In-Service Inspections) using a large range of NDT techniques to comply with each utility expectations. These techniques have been validated by the utilities and the safety authorities of the countries where they were implemented. Notably Framatome ANP is fully qualified to provide full scope ISI services to satisfy ASME Section XI requirements, through automated NDE tasks including nozzle inspections, reactor vessel head inspections, steam generator inspections, pressurizer inspections and RPV (Reactor Pressure Vessel) inspections. Intercontrole (Framatome ANP subsidiary dedicated in supporting ISI) is one of the leading NDT companies in the world. Its main activity is devoted to the inspection of the reactor primary circuit in French and foreign PWR Nuclear Power Plants: the reactor vessel, the steam generators, the pressurizer, the reactor internals and reactor coolant system piping. NDT methods mastered by Intercontrole range from ultrasonic testing to eddy current and gamma ray examinations, as well as dye penetrant testing, acoustic monitoring and leak testing. To comply with the high requirements of

Advanced inspection and repair techniques for primary side components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elm, Ralph

1998-01-01

The availability of nuclear power plant mainly depends on the components of the Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) such as reactor pressure vessel, core internals and steam generators. The last decade has been characterized by intensive inspection and repair work on PWR steam generators. In the future, it can be expected, that the inspection of the reactor pressure vessel and the inspection and repair of its internals, in both PWR and BWR will be one of the challenges for the nuclear community. Due to this challenge, new, advanced inspection and repair techniques for the vital primary side components have been developed and applied, taking into account such issues as: use of reliable and fast inspection methods, repair of affected components instead of costly replacement, reduction of outage time compared to conventional methods, minimized radiation exposure, acceptable costs. This paper reflects on advanced inspection and repair techniques such as: Baffle Former Bolt inspection and replacement, Barrel Former Bolt inspection and replacement, Mechanized UT and visual inspection of reactor pressure vessels, Steam Generator repair by advanced sleeving technology. The techniques described have been successfully applied in nuclear power plants and improved the operation performance of the components and the NPP. (author). 6 figs

Information managing in 60Co container inspection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Zhifang; Gu Bohua; Zhou Liye; An Jigang; Liu Yisi

1998-01-01

The design, maintenance and realization of information managing database in 60 Co container inspection system made by INET of Tsinghua University is introduced. The technique of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is adopted to develop a general format database including text and graphic information. The database application is developed with Visual C ++ 5.0 programming language to run in 32-bit Windows operation system. It conforms to Client/Server model and supports network communication. It works very well in the laboratory emulator of 60 Co container inspection system

Three-dimensional stereotactic surface projection of brain perfusion SPECT improves diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honda, Norinari; Machida, Kikuo

2003-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is diagnosed by either inspection of the brain perfusion SPECT, or three-dimensional stereotactic surface display (3D-SSP). The purpose was to compare diagnostic performances of these methods. Sixteen nuclear medicine physicians independently interpreted 99m Tc-ECD SPECT in one session and SPECT with 3D-SSP in another session without clinical information for 50 studies of AD patients and 40 studies of healthy volunteers. Probabilities of AD were reported according to a subjective scale from 0% (normal) to 100% (definite AD). Receiver operating characteristics curves were generated to calculate areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (Az's) for the inspection as well as for an automated diagnosis based on a mean Z value in the bilateral posterior cingulate gyri in a 3D-SSP template. Mean Az for visual interpretation of SPECT alone (0.679±0.058) was significantly smaller than that for visual interpretation of both SPECT and 3D-SSP (0.778±0.060). Az for the automated diagnosis (0.883±0.037) was significantly greater than that for both modes of visual interpretation. 3D-SSP enhanced performance of the nuclear medicine physicians inspecting SPECT. Performance of the automated diagnosis exceeded that of the physicians inspecting SPECT with and without 3D-SSP. (author)

Development of Remote Inspection Systems with the Java Applet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Yoo Rark; Lee, Jae Cheol; Kim, Jae Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2005-07-01

The world wide web and java are powerful networking technologies on the internet. An applet is a program written in the java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way as an image is included. When we use a Java technology-enabled browser to view a page that contains an applet, the applet code is transferred to a client's system and executed by the browser's Java Virtual Machine (JVM). We have developed two remote inspection systems for a reactor wall inspection and guide tube spilt pin inspection based on the java and traditional programming language. The java is used on a GUI(graphic user interface) and the traditional visual C++ programming language is used to control the inspection equipments.

Remote Inspection, Measurement and Handling for LHC

CERN Document Server

Kershaw, K; Coin, A; Delsaux, F; Feniet, T; Grenard, J L; Valbuena, R

2007-01-01

Personnel access to the LHC tunnel will be restricted to varying extents during the life of the machine due to radiation, cryogenic and pressure hazards. The ability to carry out visual inspection, measurement and handling activities remotely during periods when the LHC tunnel is potentially hazardous offers advantages in terms of safety, accelerator down time, and costs. The first applications identified were remote measurement of radiation levels at the start of shut-down, remote geometrical survey measurements in the collimation regions, and remote visual inspection during pressure testing and initial machine cool-down. In addition, for remote handling operations, it will be necessary to be able to transmit several real-time video images from the tunnel to the control room. The paper describes the design, development and use of a remotely controlled vehicle to demonstrate the feasibility of meeting the above requirements in the LHC tunnel. Design choices are explained along with operating experience to-dat...

Improved plant availability by advanced condition based inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hulshof, Harry J.M.; Noteboom, Jan W.; Welberg, Paul G.M.; Bruijn, Leo E.

2004-01-01

An industrial plant has to operate safely, reliably and efficiently at the lowest possible cost. Plant availability plays an important role regarding economic life optimisation. Industrial installations that are under pressure and are operating at high temperatures have a limited life due to creep and fatigue. It is, therefore, of critical importance to know the location of any possible weak spots in the installation. To avoid safety risks, unplanned plant shutdown and, as a consequence, high costs for unavailability, cycling and repair, periodic inspections and strain measurements are recommended. A Speckle Image Correlation Analysis (SPICA) system enables on-stream measurement of deformation due to creep in critical areas like the heat-affected zone in welds. Plant management and operators use the strain measurements to take action when necessary and, consequently, prevent failures. In those plants that have been provided with SPICA-technology for some years plant availability has improved significantly as a result. Another important development for yielding improved availability concerns steam drums. During some 20 years, KEMA has been performing automated ultrasonic steam drum inspections from outside. The Dutch authorities accepted this methodology in this period as an alternative (rather than an addition) after several pilot projects. An advantage of this inspection methodology is the possibility to record of the inspection results and possibility of thus trending these data. The resulting reduction of through time appeared a major benefit for plant owners. Since the authorities adopted the RBI approach during the last 10 years, another advantage of the inspection methodology became apparent: complete scanning and recording of the inspection data of circumferential and longitudinal (butt and fillet) welds, inspection of nozzle welds and inner radius as well as corrosion mapping has been covering all higher risk areas in these drums. This enhanced inspection

Improved plant availability by advanced condition based inspections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hulshof, Harry J.M.; Noteboom, Jan W; Welberg, Paul G.M.; Bruijn, Leo E

2004-06-01

An industrial plant has to operate safely, reliably and efficiently at the lowest possible cost. Plant availability plays an important role regarding economic life optimisation. Industrial installations that are under pressure and are operating at high temperatures have a limited life due to creep and fatigue. It is, therefore, of critical importance to know the location of any possible weak spots in the installation. To avoid safety risks, unplanned plant shutdown and, as a consequence, high costs for unavailability, cycling and repair, periodic inspections and strain measurements are recommended. A Speckle Image Correlation Analysis (SPICA) system enables on-stream measurement of deformation due to creep in critical areas like the heat-affected zone in welds. Plant management and operators use the strain measurements to take action when necessary and, consequently, prevent failures. In those plants that have been provided with SPICA-technology for some years plant availability has improved significantly as a result. Another important development for yielding improved availability concerns steam drums. During some 20 years, KEMA has been performing automated ultrasonic steam drum inspections from outside. The Dutch authorities accepted this methodology in this period as an alternative (rather than an addition) after several pilot projects. An advantage of this inspection methodology is the possibility to record of the inspection results and possibility of thus trending these data. The resulting reduction of through time appeared a major benefit for plant owners. Since the authorities adopted the RBI approach during the last 10 years, another advantage of the inspection methodology became apparent: complete scanning and recording of the inspection data of circumferential and longitudinal (butt and fillet) welds, inspection of nozzle welds and inner radius as well as corrosion mapping has been covering all higher risk areas in these drums. This enhanced inspection

Corrosion mapping in ducts using the automated ultrasonic technique C-Scan - correlation with results given by pig inspection; Mapeamento de corrosao em dutos atraves da tecnica ultrassonica C-Scan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feres Filho, Pedro; Moura, Nestor Carlos de [Physical Acoustics South America (PASA), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

2005-07-01

In-service inspection has received diverse contributions from technologies and documents with the objective of maximizing equipment availability and minimizing inadequate repairs. Amongst the available technologies, there are the automated ultrasound tests, in the B and C-scan versions. This paper describes an evaluation methodology based on the correlation between the test techniques of instrumented electromagnetic PIG and automated ultrasound, both applied with the purpose of detecting and mapping areas with corrosion in pipes for oil transport. The main objective of the application of the C-scan methodology, in this case, was the measuring and detailing of the corroded area, thus providing an adequate maintenance plan through the substitution or installation of a double gutter. The result demonstrates the correlation between the measurements taken by the PIG and the sizing of the regions done using the C-scan method, consisting of the length, width and thickness values in the points affected by the corrosion. (author)

Using Modeling and Simulation to Predict Operator Performance and Automation-Induced Complacency With Robotic Automation: A Case Study and Empirical Validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wickens, Christopher D; Sebok, Angelia; Li, Huiyang; Sarter, Nadine; Gacy, Andrew M

2015-09-01

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a computational model of the automation complacency effect, as operators work on a robotic arm task, supported by three different degrees of automation. Some computational models of complacency in human-automation interaction exist, but those are formed and validated within the context of fairly simplified monitoring failures. This research extends model validation to a much more complex task, so that system designers can establish, without need for human-in-the-loop (HITL) experimentation, merits and shortcomings of different automation degrees. We developed a realistic simulation of a space-based robotic arm task that could be carried out with three different levels of trajectory visualization and execution automation support. Using this simulation, we performed HITL testing. Complacency was induced via several trials of correctly performing automation and then was assessed on trials when automation failed. Following a cognitive task analysis of the robotic arm operation, we developed a multicomponent model of the robotic operator and his or her reliance on automation, based in part on visual scanning. The comparison of model predictions with empirical results revealed that the model accurately predicted routine performance and predicted the responses to these failures after complacency developed. However, the scanning models do not account for the entire attention allocation effects of complacency. Complacency modeling can provide a useful tool for predicting the effects of different types of imperfect automation. The results from this research suggest that focus should be given to supporting situation awareness in automation development. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Improving Usefulness of Automated Driving by Lowering Primary Task Interference through HMI Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederik Naujoks

2017-01-01

Full Text Available During conditionally automated driving (CAD, driving time can be used for non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs. To increase safety and comfort of an automated ride, upcoming automated manoeuvres such as lane changes or speed adaptations may be communicated to the driver. However, as the driver’s primary task consists of performing NDRTs, they might prefer to be informed in a nondistracting way. In this paper, the potential of using speech output to improve human-automation interaction is explored. A sample of 17 participants completed different situations which involved communication between the automation and the driver in a motion-based driving simulator. The Human-Machine Interface (HMI of the automated driving system consisted of a visual-auditory HMI with either generic auditory feedback (i.e., standard information tones or additional speech output. The drivers were asked to perform a common NDRT during the drive. Compared to generic auditory output, communicating upcoming automated manoeuvres additionally by speech led to a decrease in self-reported visual workload and decreased monitoring of the visual HMI. However, interruptions of the NDRT were not affected by additional speech output. Participants clearly favoured the HMI with additional speech-based output, demonstrating the potential of speech to enhance usefulness and acceptance of automated vehicles.

SITEGI Project: Applying Geotechnologies to Road Inspection. Sensor Integration and software processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Martínez-Sánchez

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Infrastructure management represents a critical economic milestone. The current decision-making process in infrastructure rehabilitation is essentially based on qualitative parameters obtained from visual inspections and subject to the ability of technicians. In order to increase both efficiency and productivity in infrastructure management, this work addresses the integration of different instrumentation and sensors in a mobile mapping vehicle. This vehicle allows the continuous recording of quantitative data suitable for roadside inspection. The geometric integration and synchronization of these sensors is achieved through hardware and/or software strategies that permit the georeferencing of the data obtained with each sensor. In addition, a visualization software for simpler data management was implemented using Qt framework, PCL library and C++. As a result, the developed system supports the decision-making in road inspection, providing quantitative information suitable for sophisticated analysis systems.

Multidisciplinary Energy Assessment of Tertiary Buildings: Automated Geomatic Inspection, Building Information Modeling Reconstruction and Building Performance Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faustino Patiño-Cambeiro

2017-07-01

Full Text Available There is an urgent need for energy efficiency in buildings within the European framework, considering its environmental implications, and Europe’s energy dependence. Furthermore, the need for enhancing and increasing productivity in the building industry turns new technologies and building energy performance simulation environments into extremely interesting solutions towards rigorous analysis and decision making in renovation within acceptable risk levels. The present work describes a multidisciplinary approach for the estimation of the energy performance of an educational building. The research involved data acquisition with advanced geomatic tools, the development of an optimized building information model, and energy assessment in Building Performance Simulation (BPS software. Interoperability issues were observed in the different steps of the process. The inspection and diagnostic phases were conducted in a timely, accurate manner thanks to automated data acquisition and subsequent analysis using Building Information Modeling based tools (BIM-based tools. Energy simulation was performed using Design Builder, and the results obtained were compared with those yielded by the official software tool established by Spanish regulations for energy certification. The discrepancies between the results of both programs have proven that the official software program is conservative in this sense. This may cause the depreciation of the assessed buildings.

Research and development on in-service inspection system for reactor vessel of FBR's

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rindo, Hiroshi; Mitabe, Noriaki; Ara, Kuniaki; Nagai, Keiichi; Otaka, Masahiko

1993-01-01

In-Service Inspection (ISI) is required for main components and piping of FBRs. Visual test and volumetric examination of the reactor vessel (RV) from the outer surface are to be performed under severe conditions such as limited space, high temperature and high gamma dose rate during the reactor shutdown. Therefore, ISI should be performed by using a remote operation system, and the ISI system should be very compact. PNC has been developing the ISI system to apply to the RV inspection. Verification and performance tests of ISI system were carried out by use of the RV test model. This paper describes the system structure, system verification tests including operation and controlling the inspection robot, the functions of the visual test and the volumetric examination under the high temperature

Image formation simulation for computer-aided inspection planning of machine vision systems

Science.gov (United States)

Irgenfried, Stephan; Bergmann, Stephan; Mohammadikaji, Mahsa; Beyerer, Jürgen; Dachsbacher, Carsten; Wörn, Heinz

2017-06-01

In this work, a simulation toolset for Computer Aided Inspection Planning (CAIP) of systems for automated optical inspection (AOI) is presented along with a versatile two-robot-setup for verification of simulation and system planning results. The toolset helps to narrow down the large design space of optical inspection systems in interaction with a system expert. The image formation taking place in optical inspection systems is simulated using GPU-based real time graphics and high quality off-line-rendering. The simulation pipeline allows a stepwise optimization of the system, from fast evaluation of surface patch visibility based on real time graphics up to evaluation of image processing results based on off-line global illumination calculation. A focus of this work is on the dependency of simulation quality on measuring, modeling and parameterizing the optical surface properties of the object to be inspected. The applicability to real world problems is demonstrated by taking the example of planning a 3D laser scanner application. Qualitative and quantitative comparison results of synthetic and real images are presented.

Performance of an Additional Task During Level 2 Automated Driving: An On-Road Study Comparing Drivers With and Without Experience With Partial Automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Solís-Marcos, Ignacio; Ahlström, Christer; Kircher, Katja

2018-05-01

To investigate the influence of prior experience with Level 2 automation on additional task performance during manual and Level 2 partially automated driving. Level 2 automation is now on the market, but its effects on driver behavior remain unclear. Based on previous studies, we could expect an increase in drivers' engagement in secondary tasks during Level 2 automated driving, but it is yet unknown how drivers will integrate all the ongoing demands in such situations. Twenty-one drivers (12 without, 9 with Level 2 automation experience) drove on a highway manually and with Level 2 automation (exemplified by Volvo Pilot Assist generation 2; PA2) while performing an additional task. In half of the conditions, the task could be interrupted (self-paced), and in the other half, it could not (system-paced). Drivers' visual attention, additional task performance, and other compensatory strategies were analyzed. Driving with PA2 led to decreased scores in the additional task and more visual attention to the dashboard. In the self-paced condition, all drivers looked more to the task and perceived a lower mental demand. The drivers experienced with PA2 used the system and the task more than the novice group and performed more overtakings. The additional task interfered more with Level 2 automation than with manual driving. The drivers, particularly the automation novice drivers, used some compensatory strategies. Automation designers need to consider these potential effects in the development of future automated systems.

Boresonic inspection of steam turbine and generator spindles with the Tomoscan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dube, N.; Bertholotti, D.; Yates, D.

1990-01-01

Steam turbine rotors in power utility plants can generate cracks and ultimately fail after long period of use. The inspection of rotors is done on a regular basis and particular attention is paid to areas near bore holes. An automated ultrasound system has been developed to control and ensure the quality of rotor bore holes of steam turbine rotors

Vision systems for the inspection of resistance welding joints

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrand, Lars; Fathi, Madjid

2000-06-01

Many automated quality inspection systems make use of brightness and contrast features of the objects being inspected. This reduces the complexity of the problem solving methods, as well as the demand for computational capacity. Nevertheless a lot of significant information is located in color features of the objects. This paper describes a method, that allows the evaluation of color information in a very compact and efficient way. The described method uses a combination of multi-valued logic and a special color model. We use fuzzy logic as multi-valued logic, and the HSI color model, but any multi-valued logic, that allows rule-based reasoning can be used. The HSI color model can also be exchanged with other color models, if special demands require this.

Detecting nuclear materials smuggling: performance evaluation of container inspection policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaukler, Gary M; Li, Chenhua; Ding, Yu; Chirayath, Sunil S

2012-03-01

In recent years, the United States, along with many other countries, has significantly increased its detection and defense mechanisms against terrorist attacks. A potential attack with a nuclear weapon, using nuclear materials smuggled into the country, has been identified as a particularly grave threat. The system for detecting illicit nuclear materials that is currently in place at U.S. ports of entry relies heavily on passive radiation detectors and a risk-scoring approach using the automated targeting system (ATS). In this article we analyze this existing inspection system and demonstrate its performance for several smuggling scenarios. We provide evidence that the current inspection system is inherently incapable of reliably detecting sophisticated smuggling attempts that use small quantities of well-shielded nuclear material. To counter the weaknesses of the current ATS-based inspection system, we propose two new inspection systems: the hardness control system (HCS) and the hybrid inspection system (HYB). The HCS uses radiography information to classify incoming containers based on their cargo content into "hard" or "soft" containers, which then go through different inspection treatment. The HYB combines the radiography information with the intelligence information from the ATS. We compare and contrast the relative performance of these two new inspection systems with the existing ATS-based system. Our studies indicate that the HCS and HYB policies outperform the ATS-based policy for a wide range of realistic smuggling scenarios. We also examine the impact of changes in adversary behavior on the new inspection systems and find that they effectively preclude strategic gaming behavior of the adversary. © 2011 Society for Risk Analysis.

A stereoscopic television system for reactor inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friend, D.B.; Jones, A.

1980-03-01

A stereoscopic television system suitable for reactor inspection has been developed. Right and left eye views, obtained from two conventional black and white cameras, are displayed by the anaglyph technique and observers wear appropriately coloured viewing spectacles. All camera functions, such as zoom, focus and toe-in are remotely controlled. A laboratory experiment is described which demonstrates the increase in spatial awareness afforded by the use of stereo television and illustrates its potential in the supervision of remote handling tasks. Typical depth resolutions of 3mm at 1m and 10mm at 2m have been achieved with the reactor instrument. Trials undertaken during routine inspection at Oldbury Power Station in June 1978 are described. They demonstrate that stereoscopic television can indeed improve the convenience of remote handling and that the added display realism is beneficial in visual inspection. (author)

A TWO-STAGE MODEL OF RADIOLOGICAL INSPECTION: SPENDING TIME

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BROWN, W.S.

2000-01-01

The paper describes a model that visually portrays radiological survey performance as basic parameters (surveyor efficiency and criteria, duration of pause, and probe speed) are varied; field and laboratory tests provided typical parameter values. The model is used to illustrate how practical constraints on the time allotted to the task can affect radiological inspection performance. Similar analyses are applicable to a variety of other tasks (airport baggage inspection, and certain types of non-destructive testing) with similar characteristics and constraints

A smart ROV solution for ship hull and harbor inspection