US 11,861,820 B1
Repetitive video monitoring of industrial equipment by mobile data acquisition units
Kenneth Ralph Piety, Knoxville, TN (US); Jeffrey R. Hay, Prospect, KY (US); and Mark William Slemp, Tellico Plains, TN (US)
Assigned to RDI TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Knoxville, TN (US)
Filed by RDI TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Knoxville, TN (US)
Filed on Nov. 29, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/071,130.
Application 18/071,130 is a continuation of application No. 17/824,230, filed on May 25, 2022, granted, now 11,551,345.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06T 7/20 (2017.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); H04N 5/77 (2006.01); H04N 7/18 (2006.01); H04N 23/60 (2023.01); H04N 23/90 (2023.01)
CPC G06T 7/0004 (2013.01) [G06T 7/20 (2013.01); H04N 5/77 (2013.01); H04N 7/188 (2013.01); H04N 23/64 (2023.01); G06T 2207/10016 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20104 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30184 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30232 (2013.01); H04N 23/90 (2023.01)] 30 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for collecting predictive maintenance (PdM) data to establish a condition of equipment in industrial plants or civil structures and to detect at least one suspect condition therein that obtains at least one measurement of motion of the civil structure, equipment or a portion thereof using at least one video acquisition device with an adjustable frame rate that acquires data of the at least one measurement in a video recording of the equipment or civil structure in motion, the video recording comprising video images of the civil structure, equipment or portion thereof which are divisible into individual video image frames, with each individual video image frame being divisible into a plurality of pixels, the system comprising:
a PdM database communicatively coupled to a mobile data acquisition unit (DAU), the PdM database defining the civil structure or equipment under test and a monitoring protocol identifying the at least one measurement to be obtained and a manner for obtaining the at least one measurement;
a data acquisition unit that collects data including the at least one measurement and is positioned to perform surveys within one or more spatial areas containing distinct equipment with an onboard processor and a memory that stores the individual video image frames; and
a first computer program operating in said processor,
wherein the at least one video acquisition device acquires the video images at a sampling rate that captures a plurality of frequencies present in the motion of the equipment or civil structure, and the first computer program operating in said processor adjusts at least one of focus, aperture, and supplemental lighting; automatically locates one or more spatial areas where the motion of the equipment or civil structure is evaluated for the at least one suspect condition; and
transmits the collected data to a PdM server configured with a second computer program that screens the at least one measurement using methods as defined in the PdM database; automatically determines if the at least one suspect condition is present based on the at least one measurement; and reduces an amount of video data archived in the PdM database.