System and method for inspecting a component for anomalous regions

A system for inspecting a component for anomalous regions, comprising:

• one or more sensors;
• and
• processing circuitry configured to:
• record a plurality of sensor readings for a component using the one or more sensors, each sensor reading corresponding to a different region of the component, wherein the component is a turbine blade of a gas turbine engine;
• determine an appearance metric for each of the sensor readings;
• determine a nominal appearance metric based on individual values of the appearance metric for a first subset of the sensor readings, wherein the first subset of the sensor readings includes some but not all of the sensor readings;
• and
• for a particular sensor reading of the plurality of sensor readings that is outside of the first subset:
• determine a difference between the nominal appearance metric and the appearance metric of the particular sensor reading;
• update the nominal appearance metric based on the particular sensor reading;
• and
• based on the difference exceeding a threshold, determine that the particular sensor reading is an anomalous sensor reading that corresponds to an anomalous region of the component, and record additional sensor readings of the anomalous region using one or more different sensing parameters that differ from those used to record the anomalous sensor reading;
• wherein the one or more sensors include a first sensor and a second sensor;
• and
• wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
• use the first sensor to record the plurality of sensor readings, and move the first sensor relative to the component along a path to position the first sensor to record the plurality of sensor readings;
• wherein the second sensor, which is separate from the first sensor, is used to record the additional sensor readings while the first sensor continues to follow the path.