Automated Inspection of Soft-Tooled Hollow Structure

A motion control system comprising:

• a first scanner that is movable along any one of a first plurality of motion paths within a hollow structure;
• a first plurality of motion script files containing sequences of motion commands and parameters respectively associated with said first plurality of motion paths;
• a graphical user interface comprising a first window, said first window comprising a row of tabs that access custom control windows for individual scanner devices, a graphical depiction of one end of the hollow structure and a first plurality of interaction regions inside the graphical depiction of the one end of the hollow structure, the position of each interaction regions of said first plurality of interaction regions relative to the graphical depiction of the hollow structure indicating the respective position of the first scanner relative to the hollow structure for a respective motion path of said first plurality of motion paths;
• and
• a computer system programmed to execute the sequences of commands in a motion script file corresponding to a selected one of said first plurality of interaction regions, thereby causing said first scanner to move along the corresponding motion path in accordance with its associated parameters.

A system comprising:

• a tractor comprising a frame, a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted to said frame, a drive motor, and first and second magnets;
• a plurality of scanners, each scanner comprising a frame, a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted to said frame, first and second magnets arranged for magnetic coupling with said first and second magnets of said tractor, and an X-position encoder;
• an electronics box comprising a serial interface, a power supply, a power control switch electrically coupled to said power supply and to said serial interface, an X-position encoder selector, and a data acquisition device electrically coupled to said X-position encoder selector;
• a tractor cable comprising a first electrical conductor connecting said drive motor of said tractor to said power control switch and a first plurality of electrical conductors connecting said drive motor to said serial interface;
• a plurality of scanner cables respectively connected to said plurality of scanners, each scanner cable comprising a respective electrical conductor connecting a respective X-position encoder to said X-position encoder selector;
• and
• a computer system electrically coupled to said data acquisition device and to said serial interface, wherein said computer is programmed to control the states of said power control switch and said X-position encoder selector via said serial interface, and is further programmed to control said drive motor via said serial interface and said first plurality of electrical conductors of said tractor cable in dependence on scanner X-position information derived by said data acquisition device from pulses generated by one of said X-position encoders.