1. An interrogation system for monitoring structural health conditions, comprising:
at least one wave generator coupled to a structure and operative to generate a wave signal that propagates through said structure;
a plurality of optical fiber sensors applied to the structure, each of said optical fiber sensors and said wave generator forming a communication path for transmitting the wave signal therebetween;
at least one electronic module operative to generate an input sensor signal and to send the input sensor signal to at least one of the optical fiber sensors, each of said optical fiber sensors being operative to impress the wave signal onto the input sensor signal to generate an output sensor signal that is frequency shifted from the input sensor signal by the wave signal, said electronic module being responsive to said output sensor signal and operative to generate an information signal;
a signal processing unit; and
a relay switch array module having a plurality of relay switches, one of said relay switches being operative to relay the information signal to said signal processing unit, said signal processing unit being responsive to said information signal and operative to generate a digital sensor signal and send the digital sensor signal to a computer means.
2. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
a first coupler operative to tap a portion of said input sensor signal and to send said portion to another optical fiber sensor.
3. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
a second coupler optically interconnected to said optical fiber sensor and electronic module, said second coupler being operative to add an output sensor signal from another optical fiber sensor to said output sensor signal.
4. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein said electronic module includes:
a light source for generating a light signal;
a first modulator responsive to said light signal and operative to modulate the light signal generating said input sensor signal;
an acoustical optic modulator (AOM) responsive to said input sensor signal and operative to generate a modulated signal;
a second modulator responsive to said modulated signal and said output sensor signal and operative to extract an information light signal corresponding to the wave signal; and
a photo detector responsive to said information light signal and operative to generate said information signal.
5. An interrogation system as recited in claim 4, wherein the first modulator is a heterodyne modulator and the second modulator is a heterodyne synchronizer.
6. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein said optical fiber sensors are arranged along at least two substantially parallel lines to form a network of strip configuration.
7. An interrogation system as recited in claim 6, wherein said network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths between the two lines.
8. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the said optical fiber sensors are arranged to form a substantially pentagonal shaped network.
9. An interrogation system as recited in claim 8, wherein said pentagonal shaped network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths within the pentagonal shaped network.
10. An interrogation system as recited in claim 8, wherein said pentagonal shaped network configuration surrounds a bonding patch attached to the structure and provides communication paths concentrated at the bonding patch.
11. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
a bridge box for optically interconnecting the optical fiber sensors and electronic module.
12. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of said optical fiber sensors includes:
a rolled optical fiber cable; and
a coating layer applied to the rolled optical fiber cable;
wherein a preset tensional force is applied during a rolling process of said rolled optical fiber cable and the coating layer sustains the preset tensional stress of the rolled optical fiber cable during an operation of said optical fiber sensor.
13. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein said wave signal includes at least one of a Lamb wave and a vibrational wave.
14. An interrogation system as recited in claim 1, wherein said signal processing unit includes an analog-to-digital converter.
15. An interrogation system for monitoring structural health conditions, comprising:
a waveform generating unit for receiving an actuator input signal from a computer means and operative to generate an actuator signal having a designed toneburst waveform;
a plurality of diagnostic patches applied to a structure, each of the diagnostic patches including a dual mode device that operates as an actuator and a sensor;
a relay switch array module having a plurality of relay switches and operative to relay said actuator signal to a first one of said diagnostic patches;
said first diagnostic patch being responsive to said actuator signal and operative to generate a wave signal, a second one of said diagnostic patches forming a communication path for the wave signal with said first diagnostic patch and being responsive to the wave signal and operative to generate a sensor signal; and
a signal processing unit;
wherein one of said relay switches is operative to relay said sensor signal to said signal processing unit and wherein said signal processing unit is responsive to said sensor signal and operative to generate a digital sensor signal and to send the digital sensor signal to said computer means.
16. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein said waveform generating unit includes:
a waveform generator responsive to said actuator input signal and operative to generate the actuator signal; and
an amplifier operative to amplify the actuator signal.
17. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein said signal processing unit includes:
a signal condition module operative to condition said sensor signal; and
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operative to transform said sensor signal into said digital sensor signal.
18. An interrogation system as recited in claim 17, wherein the signal condition module includes a band pass filter for filtering noises in the sensor signal and a signal voltage adjustor for adjusting the voltage level of the sensor signal.
19. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein said diagnostic patches are arranged along at least two substantially parallel lines to form a network of strip configuration.
20. An interrogation system as recited in claim 19, wherein said network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths between the two parallel lines.
21. An interrogation system as recited in claim 19, wherein said structure includes two laminates affixed by a plurality of fastening devices and wherein said fastening devices are positioned between the two parallel lines and includes at least one diagnostic patch washer and wherein said network is configured to provide communication paths concentrated in the vicinity of the diagnostic patch washer.
22. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein the said diagnostic patches are arranged to form a substantially pentagonal shaped network.
23. An interrogation system as recited in claim 22, wherein said pentagonal shaped network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths within the pentagonal shaped network.
24. An interrogation system as recited in claim 22, wherein said pentagonal shaped network configuration surrounds a bonding patch attached to the structure and provides communication paths concentrated at the bonding patch.
25. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, further comprising:
a bridge box for interconnecting the diagnostic patches to both said waveform generating unit and said signal processing unit, said bridge box including micro miniature transducers and a microprocessor of a radio frequency telemetry system.
26. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein said dual mode device includes a piezoelectric device.
27. An interrogation system as recited in claim 26, wherein said dual mode device further includes an optical fiber coil wound around the piezoelectric device and wherein the optical coil operates as a sensor.
28. An interrogation system as recited in claim 27, wherein each of the diagnostic patches further includes two optical fiber sensors for measuring a difference in time of arrival of a wave signal at the two optical fiber sensors.
29. An interrogation system as recited in claim 28, wherein said diagnostic patches are arranged along at least two substantially parallel lines to form a network of strip configuration.
30. An interrogation system as recited in claim 29, wherein said network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths between the two parallel lines.
31. An interrogation system as recited in claim 29, wherein said structure includes two laminates affixed by a plurality of fastening devices and wherein said fastening devices are positioned between the two parallel lines and includes at least one diagnostic patch washer and wherein said network is configured to provide signal paths concentrated in the vicinity of the diagnostic patch washer.
32. An interrogation system as recited in claim 28, wherein the said optical fiber sensors are arranged to form a substantially pentagonal shaped network.
33. An interrogation system as recited in claim 32, wherein said pentagonal shaped network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths within the pentagonal shaped network.
34. An interrogation system as recited in claim 32, wherein said pentagonal shaped network configuration surrounds a bonding patch attached to the structure, said pentagonal shaped network configuration providing communication paths concentrated at the bonding patch.
35. An interrogation system as recited in claim 28, wherein the optical fiber coil and optical fiber sensors are connected in serial.
36. An interrogation system as recited in claim 28, wherein the optical fiber coil and optical fiber sensors are connected in parallel.
37. An interrogation system as recited in claim 26, wherein each of the diagnostic patches includes two additional piezoelectric devices for measuring a difference in time of arrival of a wave signal at the two additional piezoelectric devices.
38. An interrogation system as recited in claim 37, wherein said diagnostic patches are arranged along at least two substantially parallel lines to form a network of strip configuration.
39. An interrogation system as recited in claim 38, wherein said network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths between the two parallel lines.
40. An interrogation system as recited in claim 38, wherein said structure includes two laminates affixed by a plurality of fastening devices and wherein said fastening devices are positioned between the two parallel lines and includes at least one diagnostic patch washer and wherein said network is configured to provide signal paths concentrated in the vicinity of the diagnostic patch washer.
41. An interrogation system as recited in claim 37, wherein the said piezoelectric sensors are arranged to form a substantially pentagonal shaped network.
42. An interrogation system as recited in claim 41, wherein said pentagonal shaped network is configured to provide uniformly randomized communication paths within the pentagonal shaped network.
43. An interrogation system as recited in claim 41, wherein said pentagonal shaped network configuration surrounds a bonding patch attached to the structure, said pentagonal shaped network configuration providing communication paths concentrated at the bonding patch.
44. An interrogation system as recited in claim 15, wherein the actuator signal is a toneburst signal and the wave signal includes at least one of a Lamb wave and a vibrational wave.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangibly embodying program instructions executable by the computer machine to perform method steps for visualization enhancement for situational awareness, said method steps comprising:
providing a graphical user interface enabling a user to interact with the software program running on the computer machine running;
the computer machine providing a database of vehicle mission recordings;
selecting one or more mission recordings;
receiving audiovisual information from one or more cameras on a mission vehicle to observe the environment in real-time;
receiving navigational sensor data from one or more sensors on a mission vehicle to observe the environment in real-time and provide;
displaying a GUI window comprising:
a navigation map associated with the mission recording wherein,
the navigation map displays the traveled path traveled of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) in a first color, if available
the current position of the vehicle is indicated by a triangle in a second color,
the front of the vehicle is designated by the point of the triangle,
the field of view (FOV) of the camera is also indicated on the triangle by the two adjacent lines, shown in a third color;
a status display; and
taking one or more camera images from the mission recording; and
displaying camera and navigational sensor data.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of tagging events in the mission recoding.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of
tagging events in the mission recoding;
loading multiple mission files;
displaying each loaded mission file on separate timelines;
each timeline is zoom-able using buttons at the bottom of the screen;
the user can drag on the timeline to display different portions of the timeline;
below the timelines, an overview bar displays, as denoted by a first colored line, what portion of the overall timeline is being displayed and the current image location, a denoted by second colored line or bar;
the second colored line or bar can be dragged to quickly access other portions of the timelines;
events are noted by a colored line or bar on the timeline;
each event can be selected and the comment from that event is displayed beneath the timelines;
the (x,y) location of that comment is plotted as a colored circle on the map;
the current image position is represented by a colored line on the timelines; and
dragging the current image position colored line to move forward or backward in the images.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein events are tagged automatically in the recoding by the UGV.
5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of
saving, adding, editing, or deleting an event;
rearranging the order of time lines by moving them up or down in order for easier comparison; and
closing a time line if no longer needed.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of
adding one or more tags to a mission;
annotating the image data with one or more tags;
searching one or more missions by the tag.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein UDV will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleoperation;
8. The method of claim 1, wherein an aerial imagery is displayed as well and the navigation map superimposed or laid over top of the aerial imagery using GPS to align the aerial imagery with the navigation map.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information displayed the status display includes the date and time of the mission, along with the GMT time in seconds, the position of the UGV in UTM and latlong position, and vehicle speed.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein
the data required to run the present invention consists of image files (.jpg) from the vehicle’s cameras and daq files that record the navigation information;
these files are time and date stamped;
placing all the image and daq files from a single mission into a folder on the computer on which a user will be executing the program;
each mission has its own separate folder to ensure that the data loads correctly; and
retrieving the files from the vehicle locally or remotely over a computer network.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein
providing the LADAR maps as semi-transparent allowing the user to view the aerial imagery underneath the map; and
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of
providing a built-in 3D viewer;
displaying a 3D map in addition to the navigation and camera images;
locking the viewpoints of the three images to each other so that zooming and panning on the image will affect the 3D view and vice versa;
adjusting the 3d map, navigation map, and image to match the pantiltzoom commands of the operator.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of
providing a map server;
providing a map user interface;
providing controls so that the map display can be zoomed and panned using mouse actions;
selecting the time ranges to search using calendar inputs placed below the map display;
displaying status information about can be also be seen to the right of the datetime selection;
providing a timeline featured at the bottom of the UI map display;
conducting a search,
when a search is conducted, events will appear on the timeline;
these events can be selected, and pertinent information is displayed above the timeline.
13. A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangibly embodying program instructions executable by the computer machine to perform method steps for visualization enhancement for situational awareness, said method steps comprising:
providing a graphical user interface enabling a user to interact with the software program running on the computer machine running;
the computer machine providing a database of vehicle mission recordings;
selecting one or more mission recordings;
displaying a GUI window comprising:
a navigation map associated with the mission recording wherein,
the navigation map displays the traveled path traveled of an UGV Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) in a first color, if available
the current position of the vehicle is indicated by a shape in a second color,
a status display; and
taking one or more camera images from the mission recording;
overlaying on the top of the image display is the cardinal direction of the displayed camera image;
changing the direction with camera panning within the still frame image;
progressing through the timeline of a mission using a horizontal scroll bar slider wherein each slider increment is equivalent to moving one second in time;
allowing a user to jump to any point from the beginning to the end of the mission;
quickly incrementing or decrementing of the slider;
allowing the user to toggle between the front camera and the rear camera of the vehicle;
providing a set of playback controls.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of
adding one or more tags to a mission;
annotating the image data with one or more tags;
searching one or more missions by the tag.
providing a map server;
providing a map user interface;
providing controls so that the map display can be zoomed and panned using mouse actions;
selecting the time ranges to search using calendar inputs placed below the map display;
displaying status information to the right of the datetime selection; and
providing a timeline featured at the bottom of the UI map display.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of
conducting a search,
when a search is conducted, events will appear on the timeline;
these events can be selected, and pertinent information is displayed above the timeline;
querying a specific location;
dragging a bounding box over the map;
the resulting navigation paths will be drawn on the display map;
search results summarizing the collections are found in the bounding box;
colored lines on the timeline represent the start time of each collection in the search results, where each collection is a ten minute segment of data; and
when an event on the timeline is selected, the collection information is displayed in the search results section.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of
downloading and displaying 360 degree imagery from the database; and
displaying multiple images from different parts of the timeline simultaneously.
17. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of
providing a search server;
using a combination of spatial and temporal indexes at varying scales to answer search queries that may include time, distance or producer identity constraints;
sending a query to a search server;
using a query optimizer to determine the best search strategy for the constraints given by the search server;
conducting a TimeID search through global linear indices;
conducting a spatial search through indices in a hierarchy of grids where the server looks at a grid hierarchy that splits the surface of the planet into distinct cells.
data are associated with cells at certain levels of the hierarchy;
the server performs a recursive search within this hierarchy, identifying the largest cells that are entirely within the search radius;
cells that are only partially covered by the search area are subdivided until either a completely covered cell is found or the process reaches the lowest level of grid cells;
the server takes its list of matching cells and processes each one;
any cell that has been populated will appear in the root-level tree that maps cell IDs to a set of local indices;
when the particular cell is completely enclosed within the search area, the server looks in the cell’s local temporal index for collection units that match the time constraint, otherwise, the server will look in either a spatial tree for queries that match only part of the cell but do not specify a time range, or a local spatiotemporal index for queries that specify both a part of the cell and a time range; and
the search server returns a result set in which it lists each collection or 10-minute unit it found.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of
querying a unit or collection from the search server;
listing each collection’s data;
listing a selected unit or collection start time as well as its sequential number within the collection and all of the data that would be returned for the corresponding collection; and
including a summary of the unit or collection, consisting of a list of time-stamped points at a specified resolution.
20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of
selecting or clicking on a static object of interest (OOI) through two or more frames;
using the navigation information of the robot in those frames, along with the positions in the image clicked or selected;
triangulating the object to its global position;
adjusting the virtual camera to this new focus point;
moving forward and backward in the video stream;
centering the camera image by panning and tilting the virtual camera around the object; and
viewing the object from multiple angles.
21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of
displaying path of the robots from both missions are displayed on the map in two different colors;
clicking the map on an overlapping location;
navigating to that location using the buttons on the app brings up the two images side by side;
using navigation information from the time the images were taken to align the orientation of the images so that the images shown on the screen are showing the same area of the environment;
locking the images so that moving a finger on the screen changes the pantiltzoom of both images; and
comparing images from two separate missions.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein two missions can be compared after-action or a previous mission can be compared to the live mission.