Rdi Technologies, Inc.

Csi Technology, Inc.

Other

Mark William Slemp

Jeffrey R Hay

Kenneth Ralph Piety

Joseph A Vrba

James C Robinson

Michael D Rich

William F Bethmann, Jr

Leanne Tuggle Metzger

Systems and methods are provided to perform PdM surveys using data acquisition units which screen multiple locations where equipment or structures to be evaluated are present. Video data will be acquired and processed to measure translational and vibratory motion and additional data will be collected from other camera, sensors or via data links. The motion present in the equipment or structures under test and the supplemental data will be automatically evaluated to detect suspect equipment conditions and to minimize the amount of video data maintained on the data acquisition unit and transmitted back the central PdM server for review by a PdM analyst and long term archival.

Repetitive video monitoring of industrial equipment by mobile data acquisition units

A non-contacting system for visualizing and analyzing periodic movements in machinery includes at least one video acquisition device that acquires sampling data as a video comprising a plurality of video image frames and a data analysis system including processor and memory, and a computer program operating in the processor to filter movements depicted in the video to a specific frequency to normalize the phase in a plurality of objects in the video representing parts or components of the machinery, to compare the movements of such objects which in some embodiments provides for construction of a modified video to visually exaggerate the apparent movement of the at least one of the plurality of objects.

Apparatus and method for visualizing periodic motions in mechanical components

Embodiments described herein enhance the visualization of certain conditions contained in a video depicting motion in a field of view, in which the enhancements include but are not limited to one or more of: adjusting the appearance of video when objects are at different distances from a video acquisition device; aligning phase of motion obtained from different video acquisition devices; accentuating frequency phenomena that may be masked or obstructed in the presence of other frequencies of motion; differentiating motion data to obtain velocity or acceleration waveforms or spectra; applying a color scheme to pixels in a scene to highlight motion with specific characteristics or to amplify motion or provide indication of absolute motion; and determining spatial or temporal regions in the video to amplify based on the predetermined parameters.

Enhanced presentation methods for visualizing motion of physical structures and machinery

Present embodiments pertain to systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing and reporting the movements in mechanical structures, machinery, and machine components using video recordings, including one or more regions of interest found in video image frames depicting an object of interest, for study of visual data indicative of the performance or condition of such structures, machinery and components by the creation of a video report file through iterative modification of a video report-in-progress referencing one or more modified visual objects associated with motion under investigation.

Video report generator coupled to a system that measures motion using a camera

Present embodiments pertain to systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing and reporting the movements in mechanical structures, inanimate physical structures, machinery, and machine components, including automatically detecting aliased frequencies of a component on the structure which exhibits frequencies higher than the maximum frequency of the FFT spectrum calculated from the acquired data. To automatically detect the presence of aliased frequencies, a second virtually identical recording is acquired using a slightly different sampling rate and this provides the basis for detecting frequencies which are greater than the Nyquist sampling rate of the video recording and calculating the true frequency value of the aliased peaks in the frequency spectrum.

Detection of aliased peak frequencies in video recording

Systems and methods are provided to perform PdM surveys using data acquisition units which scan screen multiple locations where equipment or structures to be evaluated are present. Video data will be acquired and processed to measure translational and vibratory motion and additional data will be collected from other camera, sensors or via data links. The motion present in the equipment or structures under test and the supplemental data will be automatically evaluated to detect suspect equipment conditions and to minimize the amount of video data maintained on the data acquisition unit and transmitted back the central PdM server for review by a PdM analyst and long term archival.

Present embodiments pertain to systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing and reporting rotational or reciprocating movements and speed of rotation or reciprocation in mechanical structures, machines, and machine components, through the use of an acquired video recording representing a plurality of cycles of motion, by measuring intensity values of a subset of pixels contained in a region of interest within the video recording in a plurality of frames of the video recording, thereby calculating a speed of rotation or reciprocation of the structure, machine or machine component.

Measuring the speed of rotation or reciprocation of a mechanical component using one or more cameras

Present embodiments include but are not limited to a video camera which is able to capture and record video data of an entire machine without contacting the machine, to visually study complex motions which vary both in time and spatially at different locations on the machine, wherein filters applied to the motion present in the video recording are used to identify frequencies of importance and to visualize their impact on the operation of the machine, including by removing certain frequencies of lesser interest from the video recording.

Monitoring of objects based on frequency spectrum of motion and frequency filtering

Systems and methods are provided to evaluate moving objects undergoing periodic motion through the screening of a video recording of such objects in motion for frequency peaks in the spectral data, and to determine spatially where these frequencies occur in the scene depicted in the video recording, wherein a frequency spectrum is created for a subset of pixels or virtual pixels and a composite frequency spectrum table or graph is constructed of frequencies that are selected from among the larger group of frequencies represented by the frequency peaks of the spectral data.

Enhanced analysis techniques using composite frequency spectrum data

Embodiments disclosed herein include, but are not limited to, methods for capturing video sampling data comprising a plurality of video images of a moving object, for example using one or more cameras positioned on a stationary frame of reference adjacent to the mechanical component under investigation, in which a change in motion of the moving object is correlated to an origin frame obtained from the sampling data and representing a point at which the change in motion first occurs.

Image acquisition, correlation and detailed visual inspection of component in periodic motion

An apparatus for visualizing physical movements includes: a device for acquiring video image files; a data analysis system including processor and memory; a computer program operating in the processor to identify an area in the images where periodic motions associated with physical movement of an object may be detected and quantified, and compute a new image sequence in which the motions are visually amplified; and, a user interface that displays the motion-amplified video image of the mechanical component. An associated method for using the apparatus is also disclosed.

A source video of a scene showing moving objects, undergoing periodic motion in a field of view which may be located in a region of interest, is filtered and processed by constructing a representation such as a frequency spectrum plot of some of the frequencies of motion in the scene or region of interest and enabling a selection of frequency peaks representing one or more pixels in the field of view from which to generate reconstructed waveforms, then applying the reconstructed waveform at each pixel to a reference frame to produce a modified video recording.

Enhanced visualization techniques using reconstructed time waveforms

Present embodiments pertain to systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing and reporting movements characterized by torsional vibration in mechanical structures, machines, and machine components, through the use of an acquired video recording representing a plurality of cycles of motion, by measuring intensity values of a subset of pixels contained in a region of interest within the video recording in a plurality of frames of the video recording, wherein an application of one or more numerical algorithms to the repeating patterns in the intensity waveform enables the torsional vibration characteristics of the component to be determined.

Growing community of inventors

Tellico Plains, TN, United States of America

Mark William Slemp