Structural hot spot and critical location monitoring system and method

A system for detecting cracks in a critical location of a structural component, comprising:

• an image processing computer including a processor and memory;
• and
• a camera that receives signals indicative of at least one image for the critical location;
• apply a detection algorithm that includes a low level image processing and a high level image processing;
• identify, using the low level image processing algorithm, a critical location of a structural component by detecting repetitive shapes in an area of the structural component where load is transferred;
• direct, by the detection algorithm, a camera toward the critical location in response to determining the critical location;
• receive, with a processor, signals indicative of at least one camera image for the critical location in the structural component, wherein the camera image of the critical location includes a location where metal fatigue of the structural component is likely to occur;
• determine, with the processor, at least one shape in the at least one image, the at least one shape being representative of a structure of the critical location;
• transmit, with the processor, the camera image for analysis of the identified critical location based on analytical modeling, experiential information and historical information;
• produce, with the processor, one or more images representing a large input matrix;
• wherein the images represents at least one region around the structure of the critical location in the matrix;
• apply, with the high level image processing, a contextual high level driven model analysis on the matrix, wherein the contextual model includes steps of image processing on the matrix including performing a robust principle component analysis using an output from a contextual model applied to the matrix, to decompose the matrix into a normal component and a sparse component, the sparse component containing information pertaining to cracks or deformation of the structural component;
• and apply a thresholding scheme, with the processor, to the sparse component to detect cracks in the at least one region of the structure of the critical location.