Self-Contained Holonomic Tracking Method and Apparatus for Non-Destructive Inspection

A device comprising:

• a frame;
• a plurality of omni wheels rotatably coupled to said frame;
• a plurality of rotational encoders respectively coupled to said plurality of omni wheels;
• and an inspection unit connected to said frame.

An inspection system comprising a scanning device, a display device and a computer system, said scanning device and said display device being coupled to communicate with said computer system,

• wherein said scanning device comprises:
• a frame;
• a plurality of omni wheels rotatably coupled to said frame;
• a plurality of rotational encoders respectively coupled to said plurality of omni wheels for converting rotation of each omni wheel into respective encoder data;
• and an inspection unit connected to said frame, and
• wherein said computer system is programmed to execute the following operations:
• (a) computing an absolute angle representing an orientation of the device relative to a coordinate system of the surface based in part on said encoder data;
• (b) computing relative changes in X and Y positions of the device relative to said coordinate system of the surface based in part on said encoder data;
• (c) computing an absolute position of the device relative to said coordinate system of the surface based in part on said computed absolute angle and said computed changes in X and Y positions;
• (d) controlling said inspection unit to acquire inspection data;
• (e) controlling said display device to display an image in which the inspection data is arranged based on the respective absolute angle and absolute position of the device when each inspection datum was acquired.

A tracking system comprising a movable device and a computer system, said movable device being coupled to communicate with said computer system,

• wherein said movable device comprises:
• a frame;
• a plurality of omni wheels rotatably coupled to said frame;
• and a plurality of rotational encoders respectively coupled to said plurality of omni wheels for converting rotation of each omni wheel into respective encoder data, and
• wherein said computer system is programmed to execute the following operations:
• (a) computing an absolute angle representing an orientation of the device relative to a coordinate system of the surface based in part on said encoder data;
• (b) computing relative changes in X and Y positions of the device relative to said coordinate system of the surface based in part on said encoder data;
• and
• (c) computing an absolute position of the device relative to said coordinate system of the surface based in part on said computed absolute angle and said computed changes in X and Y positions.