Patent ID: 9681107
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: F01D,G01N,G02B,H04N

Claim:
1. A flexible, position tracking camera scope inspection system for internal inspection of power generation machinery, comprising: a camera scope including: a flexible elongated tether that is bendable along a tether axial central axis thereof, having axial length, and a distal end for insertion into a blind cavity of a power generation machine; a flexible, linear sensor array, having a sensor array linear central axis, coupled to and oriented along axial length of the tether, for sensing axial location and radius of bends in the tether along the axial central axis thereof, based on linear distortion of said sensor array along its sensor array linear central axis; a tether flexure sensing system, coupled to the flexible linear sensor array, for determining profile of the tether along its tether axial central axis, based on axial location and radius of bends sensed by the sensor array; a camera head coupled to the tether distal end; an optical camera, having a field of view, coupled to the camera head, for generating image data; a camera head position sensing system, coupled to the tether flexure sensing system, for inferentially determining three dimension (3D) position of the camera head and for generating inferred camera head position data, based on profile of the tether along its tether axial central axis, that was determined by the tether flexure sensing system; and a controller coupled to the camera scope optical camera and the camera position sensing system, for correlating the image and position data, the camera head position sensing system further comprising designated waypoint markings or objects in an inspected power generation machine viewed by the optical camera that are used by the controller to corroborate correlation of the image and camera position data by comparison with a previously validated correlation image and position data set.