Patent ID: 11961305
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 19:
20. A method for tracking a location of a scanner having a one-dimensional sensor array in a frame of reference of a target object, the method comprising:
(a) moving the scanner across a surface of a target object from a starting location to an ending location along a path;
(b) acquiring successive sets of sensor data at a known capture rate as the scanner moves along the path during step (a);
(c) converting the successive sets of sensor data to respective scan strips of scan image data;
(d) constructing successive scan images from respective sequences of scan strips converted from sensor data acquired as the scanner moves along the path during step (a);
(e) finding feature points in respective pairs of successive scan images;
(f) determining which feature points found in step (e) are common feature points in the respective pairs of successive scan images;
(g) computing pixel position differences between respective positions of common feature points in the respective pairs of successive scan images;
(h) computing respective scanner displacements by multiplying the respective pixel position differences computed in step (g) by a scaling factor representing a distance traveled by the scanner per scan strip;
(i) computing coordinates of successive positions of points on respective portions of the surface of the target object corresponding to the successive scan images based on the respective scanner displacements;
(j) comparing respective scan images corresponding to the start and ending locations of the scanner;
(k) determining a location offset of the ending location from the starting location;
(l) computing corrected coordinates of successive positions of points on the respective portions of the surface of the target object corresponding to successive scan images based on the location offset;
(m) associating the corrected coordinates with the successive scan images;
(n) computing corrected angles of successive orientations of the respective portions of the surface of the target object corresponding to the successive scan images based on the location offset;
(o) associating the corrected angles with the successive scan images; and
(p) storing the successive scan images and associated corrected coordinates and corrected angles in a non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium.