Caterpillar Inc.

United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Jodi Graf

Paul Russell Friend

Qi Chen

Daniel Dale Morris

Hong Chang

Anthony Joseph Lapp

Shaun Azimi

Justin Ridley

Ross Pettinger

Darby Magruder

A system and method is provided for traversing inside one or more pipes. In an embodiment, a fluid is injected into the one or more pipes thereby promoting a fluid flow. An inspection device is deployed into the one or more pipes at least partially filled with a flowing fluid. The inspection device comprises a housing wherein the housing is designed to exploit the hydrokinetic effects associated with a fluid flow in one or more pipes as well as maneuver past a variety of pipe configurations. The inspection device may contain one or more sensors capable of performing a variety of inspection tasks.

System and method for traversing pipes

A motion determination system is disclosed. The system may receive a first and a second camera image from a camera, the first camera image received earlier than the second camera image. The system may identify corresponding features in the first and second camera images. The system may receive range data comprising at least one of a first and a second range data from a range detection unit, corresponding to the first and second camera images, respectively. The system may determine first positions and the second positions of the corresponding features using the first camera image and the second camera image. The first positions or the second positions may be determined by also using the range data. The system may determine a change in position of the machine based on differences between the first and second positions, and a VO-based velocity of the machine based on the determined change in position.

Motion estimation utilizing range detection-enhanced visual odometry

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Seabrook, TX, United States of America

Jodi Graf