Method and system for automated inspection utilizing a multi-modal database

A method for detecting a defect in a part of a gas turbine engine comprising:

• receiving image data of the part from an image capture device;
• using the image data and another type of data about the part other than the image data to create composite data through multi-modal data fusion, wherein the another type of data is a 3-D CAD model of a shape of the part, and the multi-modal data fusion comprises overlaying the 3-D CAD model of the shape of the part on the image data of the part to create the composite data;
• identifying a potential defect in the part by analyzing the composite data by computing a posterior probability of a potential defect based on new data and prior data of the composite data and generating a ranked list of failure parts/regions based on the posterior probability to identify a potential defect having a higher probability;
• upon identifying a potential defect in the part, analyzing a type of data about the part other than the image data and the composite data to identify a defect;
• and
• reporting the defect.