Vehicle undercarriage inspection and imaging method and system

A computer readable medium encoded with software for rendering a viewable image of a vehicle undercarriage, said software when executed causing a computing platform to perform the steps of:

• arranging a plurality of imaging devices with a first dimensional spacing between said imaging device such that a first area of overlap within adjacent imaging device fields of view is provided;
• measuring a range from said imaging devices to a vehicle while a vehicle passes over said plurality of imaging devices;
• storing a plurality of images from each imaging device by determining positions at which images from said imaging devices is stored with subsequent images from each imaging device having a second area of overlap within said imaging device field of views;
• and
• assembling a viewable undercarriage image of said overpassing vehicle by matching features in said stored images.

A system for imaging a vehicle undercarriage comprising:

• a plurality of imaging devices in an array with inter-device spacing which provides a first area of overlap in fields of view of adjacent imaging devices at a minimum clearance distance from an arrangement, each of said imaging devices having an image output;
• at least one range finding device positioned relative to said imaging device array in a manner capable of measuring a distance to a vehicle passing over said imaging device array, said range finding device having a range measurement output;
• one or more communications means disposed between said range finding device output and an image rendering device range measurement input, and between said imaging device image output and an image storing device image collection input;
• an image storing device having said image collection input and said range measurement input, said image storing device being adapted to determine positions of said vehicle at which subsequent images from each imaging device may be stored, said subsequent images having a second area of overlap;
• and
• an image rendering device adapted to assemble a viewable image of an undercarriage of said overpassing vehicle by matching features in said stored images.