Systems and methods for analyzing data in a non-destructive testing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016110243-A1
Application number	US-201514974830-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 18, 2015
Priority date	Jan 22, 2013
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A collaboration system may include a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device that may communicate with at least one other computing device via a computing network. The computing network may communicatively couple a plurality of computing devices and the NDT inspection device may acquire inspection data, establish a communication connection to the at least one other computing device, and send the data to the at least one other computing device. There, the at least one other computing device may analyze the data. After the data is analyzed, the NDT inspection device may receive the analyzed data from the at least one other computing device.

First claim

1 . A collaboration system, comprising:
a non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection device configured to communicate with at least one other computing device via a computing network, wherein the computing network is configured to communicatively couple to a plurality of computing devices and wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to:
acquire inspection data;
establish a communication connection to the at least one other computing device;
periodically send the data to the at least one other computing device, wherein the at least one other computing device is configured to analyze the data; and
receive the analyzed data from the at least one other computing device.

2 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the inspection data comprises raw data.

3 . The collaboration system of claim 2 , wherein the raw data comprises ultrasound data, eddy current inspection data, radiography data, image data, video data, audio data, or any combination thereof.

4 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to send an indication of one or more algorithms to the at least one other computing device, wherein the data is analyzed by the at least one other computing device using the one or more algorithms.

5 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one other computing device is a cloud computing network comprising one or more processors configured to analyze the data.

6 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one other computing device is a server, a desktop, a laptop, a mobile device, or a combination thereof, comprising one or more processors configured to analyze the data.

7 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one other computing device is configured to perform one or more iterations of data analysis on the data, and to transmit results of each iteration to the NDT device.

8 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to send the data to the at least one other computing device, and the at least one other computing device is configured to analyze the data as it is received.

9 . The collaboration system of claim 1 , wherein the NDT inspection device is configured to receive one or more reports from the at least one other computing device, wherein the one or more reports are generated based on the analyzed data.

10 . A computing device comprising program instructions configured to:
receive data that has been acquired using one or more non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection devices; receive an indication that the data is to be analyzed using one or more algorithms; perform an analysis of the data using the one or more algorithms; and send the analysis of the data to another computing device.

11 . The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the program instructions are configured to send a request for additional information to the other computing device based on the analysis of the data.

12 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the analysis comprises applying one or more filters on the data.

13 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the analysis comprises a report summarizing one or more findings of the analysis, one or more recommendations associated with the analysis, or any combination thereof.

14 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the report comprises information regarding a defect size, a defect location, a defect type, or any combination thereof associated with an asset being inspected by the NDT inspection devices.

15 . The device of claim 10 , wherein performing the analysis comprises performing a plurality of iterations of analysis on the data using the one or more algorithms.

16 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions configured to:
receive raw data from one or more non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection devices configured to inspect one or more assets; receive metadata associated with the raw data; organize the raw data based on the metadata; modify the metadata to make a creator of the raw data anonymous; and store the raw data in one or more databases.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the metadata comprises an indication of a fleet of the assets.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the metadata is modified to remove a location where the one or more assets are installed, one or more entities who purchased the assets, or any combination therof.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the raw data is analyzed using one or more data analysis tools configured to analyze the data for one or more measurements associated with an asset being inspected by the one or more NDT inspection devices, assisted and/or automatic defect recognition in the asset, disposition information on the asset, and any combination thereof.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the raw data comprises ultrasound data, eddy current inspection data, radiography data, image data, video data, audio data, or any combination thereof.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Domke Michael Christopher
• Messinger Jason Howard
• Soorianarayanan Sekhar
• Lambdin Thomas Eldred
• Sbihli Scott Leo

Classifications

• G05B23/0208 Primary

  characterized by the configuration of the monitoring system · CPC title

• G06Q10/20

  Administration of product repair or maintenance · CPC title

• G06F11/0709

  in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems · CPC title

• G06F11/079 Primary

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title