Structural masking for progressive health monitoring

A system for progressive health monitoring of a structural component using structural masking, comprising:

• an image processing computer including a processor and memory;
• and
• a camera that captures a current image of the structural component;
• wherein the memory comprises instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
• align the current image and a reference image of the structural component;
• perform a structure estimation on the current image and the reference image to produce a current structure estimate image and a reference structure estimate image;
• generate a structural mask from the reference structure estimate image;
• and
• mask the current structure estimate image with the structural mask to identify one or more health monitoring analysis regions comprising a potential defect or damaged area appearing in the masked current structure estimate image that does not appear in the reference structure estimate image.