System and method for autonomous inspection for asset maintenance and management

A method for performing an autonomous inspection comprising:

• departing, by an autonomous sensor apparatus, a docking station, wherein a plurality of sensors are on-board the autonomous sensor apparatus, wherein the plurality of sensors include a camera sensor, a thermal sensor, and a chemical sensor that is a tunable diode laser sensor, and wherein at least one of the plurality of sensors are configured to sense a location of one or more points on at least one surface of one or more three-dimensional objects;
• traversing, by the autonomous sensor apparatus, a path through a site having the one or more three-dimensional objects located therein;
• locating and traveling to a proximity of, by the autonomous sensor apparatus, the one or more three-dimensional objects;
• orienting toward, by the autonomous sensor apparatus and/or the plurality of sensors that are on-board the autonomous sensor apparatus, the one or more three-dimensional objects;
• obtaining, by the plurality of sensors, one or more data sets along the path, each of the one or more data sets including one of a plurality of attributes of the one or more three-dimensional objects, wherein the plurality of attributes include the location of the one or more points, a visual signature at the location of the one or more points, a thermal signature at the location of the one or more points, and a chemical signature at the location of the one or more points, wherein the plurality of sensors obtain the one or more data sets from a plurality of different positions of the plurality of sensors along the path relative to the one or more points on the at least one surface of the one or more three-dimensional objects;
• returning the autonomous sensor apparatus to the docking station;
• pre-processing, by a processor on-board the docking station, the one or more data sets including:
• a) compensating, by the processor, for differences in illuminance with two-dimensional image data;
• b) removing, by the processor on-board the docking station, extraneous sensed data that is not associated with the at least one surface of the one or more three dimensional objects;
• and c) compressing the one or more data sets;
• collocating, by the processor, the one or more data sets by assigning three-dimensional coordinates, wherein the assigned three-dimensional coordinates correspond to the location of the one or more points on the at least one surface of the one or more three-dimensional objects and each assigned three-dimensional coordinate corresponds individually to data points in the one or more data sets based on the location of the one or more points on the at least one surface of the one or more three-dimensional objects to produce a collocated data set, wherein the data points are arranged in a point cloud, and the data points are the visual signature, the thermal signature, and the chemical signature;
• correcting the one or more data sets for a positional variance between the plurality of sensors, wherein the positional variance is corrected by a distance between the plurality of sensors;
• or the positional variance is corrected by a distance between each of the plurality of sensors and a point of reference;
• generating, by the processor, a working model from the collocated data set by first determining the plurality of different positions of the plurality of sensors with respect to the one or more three-dimensional objects and then projecting the one or more data sets onto the working model;
• determining, by the processor, an identity of the one or more three-dimensional objects using the working model;
• comparing, by the processor, the working model with i) a baseline model of the one or more three-dimensional objects, the baseline model either provided by an original equipment manufacturer, created in accordance with a planned construction of the one or more three-dimensional objects, or both and ii) one or more pre-existing models to determine a presence and/or an absence of anomalies, wherein the comparing with the one or more pre-existing models includes comparing each of the data points of the working model to data points having corresponding three-dimensional coordinates of the one or more pre-existing models;
• defining, by the processor, criticality of the anomalies;
• receiving, by the processor, an overlay model, wherein the overlay model is an overlay of the working model, the baseline model, and the one or more pre-existing models, wherein the overlay model has a size that is 5 to 6 orders of magnitude less than the one or more data sets, and wherein the working model, the baseline model, the one or more pre-existing models, and the overlay model are three-dimensional digital models of the one or more three-dimensional objects, including the at least one surface thereof, including the plurality of attributes of the one or more three-dimensional objects;
• and
• adjusting, autonomously by a respective controller of the one or more three-dimensional objects, one or more operating conditions of the one or more three-dimensional objects based on the determined anomalies, wherein the adjusting of the one or more operating conditions includes adjusting a temperature, adjusting a speed, adjusting a frequency, adjusting a fluid flow, or any combination thereof of the one or more three-dimensional objects.