SYNETICS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CORP. — Department of Transportation SBIR Phase I: 21-FR2

Description

The hand held Wheel Inspector provides the capability to measure wheel profiles, create wheel rim surface models, identify and classify defects using combined surface and image intensity data.The device uses a camera and two laser profilometers to recover the wheel profile to an accuracy of 0.00012 inches; an ultrasonic sensor provides the wheel back-to-back measurement.The device supports two modes of inspection: 1)A Snap shot mode enabling manual inspection at any accessible point on the wheel's circumference, 2)An Area of Interest Automated Survey mode which recovers a surface model of an accessible extent of the wheel's circumference under user supervision.The wheel profile data is processed to recover rim and tread inspection measures. The wheel's outer face surface model is created using an ensemble of profiles collected in the automated survey mode.A surface model is then compared to a 1:20 taper surface, the resulting surface difference model is then combined with its associated intensity image map; the combined data is used to localize defects in the surface, classify them and quantify their severity. The device features: 1) A Microsoft Surface Duo touch screen user interface, 2)A 24VDC Lithium Ion battery providing 2.2 hours of operation.