Laser scanning system for inspecting large underwater hydroelectric structures

Mirallès, François; Beaudry, Julien; Blain, Michel; Santis, Romano M. De; Houde, R.; Hurteau, R.; Robert, André; Sarraillon, Serge; Soucy, Nathalie

doi:10.1117/1.3435344

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Over short distances (up to three meters), the precision was also compared to that of a Faro laser tracker and an API Omnitrack. A derivative of this robotic system was used to inspect large underwater hydroelectric structures [7][8].…”

Section: B Measurement Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic refurbishment of gate wheel tracks

Gagne

Bedard-T

Lavoie

et al. 2010

2010 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry

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This paper presents an innovative technique to repair head gate and spillway gate wheel tracks at a fraction of the cost and time usually required, without compromising quality. A small portable robot is used to rectify the wheel track to within very tight tolerances. This is accomplished by coupling the small and flexible robot to an accurate measurement system to scan the wheel track surface topography. Robotic grinding is then performed, using a controlled metal removal rate strategy to iterate toward the desired target profile. If required, a stainless steel plate can be welded over the existing track with an innovative method involving post-heat treatment and hammer peening. This particular welding procedure was developed due to the high carbon content of the steel of the existing track. The technique was successfully tested on a few occasions on gates owned by Rio Tinto Alcan and Hydro Quebec.

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Section: B Measurement Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic refurbishment of gate wheel tracks

Gagne

Bedard-T

Lavoie

et al. 2010

2010 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry

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“…Over short distances (up to 3 m), the precision is also validated by comparison to a Faro Xi laser tracker and an API Sensor Omnitrack. A modified version of this robotic system was used to inspect large underwater hydroelectric structures (Mirallès et al, 2007(Mirallès et al, , 2010.…”

Section: High-precision Plumb Line Scanningmentioning

confidence: 99%

A portable, multiprocess, track‐based robot for in situ work on hydropower equipment

Hazel

Côté

Laroche

et al. 2011

Journal of Field Robotics

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In the hydropower industry, in situ maintenance work of turbine runners to address issues such as cavitation damage and cracking is mainly performed manually. Alternatively, the entire turbine requires disassembly and is repaired off site at greater cost. This paper presents the development and fundamentals of robotic technology designed to perform work in situ on hydroelectric equipment. A second paper surveys field implementations carried out with the technology over the past 15 years. A new portable manipulator was designed with unique track-based kinematics well suited to accessing turbine blades in a confined space. The robot is driven by position-controlled stepper motors but relies on a hybrid force/position controller to perform processes in contact with the work piece, such as grinding. A major obstacle for robotic repair is excessive programming time. As most work is done on curved surfaces, the robot relies on a model of curvilinear space for trajectory generation. The robot is coupled to an accurate measurement system to scan surface topography in three dimensions. It has been equipped to perform several processes, such as welding and grinding, to facilitate the manufacture and maintenance of hydropower equipment. Despite the robot's inaccuracy and flexibility, surface profiles may be reconstructed with great accuracy through the use of a controlled metal removal rate strategy that relies on an innovative dynamic model of the grinding process. C

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“…LiDAR, laser scanning or sonar are used on a regular basis for such task. In the past few years, an underwater laser scanning system for the inspection of large underwater hydroelectric structures was developed at the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute [1][2]. The goal of geometrical surveys provided by this instrument is to detect defects on the structure surface or to diagnose possible interferences between mechanical parts by processing the acquired 3D data that are normally unorganized, unoriented, non-uniform and highly noisy with outliers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out-of-Core Surface Reconstruction from Large Point Sets for Infrastructure Inspection

Fréchet

Laurendeau

et al. 2015

2015 12th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision

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This paper presents a simple, effective, yet fast outof-core method for surface reconstruction based on the vector field surface representation. The algorithm is designed to handle massive amount of real-world point clouds representing large infrastructures (e.g. underwater hydroelectric structure) acquired by LiDAR, sonar or laser scanning system using outof-core techniques. Our method allows performing seamless surface reconstruction from unorganized, unoriented, nonuniform and highly noisy data that include outliers. The applicability of the method has been evaluated in the context of hydroelectric infrastructure inspection, and its performance has been tested using synthetically produced data and field data captured on different Hydro-Quebec's sites by laser line scanning, LiDAR and sonar measurement systems.

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Laser scanning system for inspecting large underwater hydroelectric structures

Cited by 12 publications

References 11 publications

Robotic refurbishment of gate wheel tracks

Robotic refurbishment of gate wheel tracks

A portable, multiprocess, track‐based robot for in situ work on hydropower equipment

Out-of-Core Surface Reconstruction from Large Point Sets for Infrastructure Inspection

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