SBIR-STTR Award

The purpose of the Phase I study is to develop a conceptual design for a self contained aerial cable inspection trolley that can evaluate the condition of a suspended 16,000 foot, 2 inch diameter synthetic cable in 5-10 minutes. The system will consist of external and internal inspection modules for damage or deteriorization in the cable structure, as well as data storage, suspension and propulsion, power distribution, master control, telemetry, and remote displays and controls modules. In recent years image processing and pattern recognition techniques have been developed to recognize various types of flaws, defects, or other types of defined patterns in industry. These real time inspection systems have become feasible due to the evolution of high-resolution line-scan cameras and high-performance micro-processors. The design approach selected for the Aerial Cable Inspection Trolley is based primarily on this type of optical inspection system for achieving a high internal condition of the cable at high speed will be investigated and a tradeoff evaluation performed. Methods such as ultrasonic, microfocus x-ray, and capacitive sensors will be surveyed for this application. The inspection modules will be integrated into a complete trolley conceptual design that includes data storage, suspension and propulsion, master control processor, and data telemetry.

Benefits:
The development of a cable inspection system will have a direct application to the commercial inspection of man rated trolley systems, and the inspection of production processes for the large cable and rope manufacturing companies. It will be a valuable technology base for other high speed processes that can use pattern recognition techniques.

Keywords:
pattern insoection trolley controls linescan video ultrasonic display

The objective of the Phase I study was to determine the feasibility of an inspection system mounted on a trolley that could evaluate the condition of a 16,000 foot long serial cable fabricated from a synthetic material in the form of a rope. The results of the Phase I study demonstrated that an inspection trolley system was feasible. The objective of the Phase II program is to design and build a full-scale engineering model inspection system that will be used to field test a 16,000 foot cable suspended from mountain peak to peak at WSMR. The time allocated for the inspection is 30 minutes (one-way). External damage detection is required. The aerial cable inspection equipment is to be mounted on a self-contained, remotely controlled trolley which can traverse the length of the cable while measuring data that can be correlated with cable damage. This data is to be relayed via an Rf data link to the base of the target launch tower and then down to a controls and displays system in a remote building, or the data is recorded on board the trolley and off-loaded when the trolley is returned to the docking position.