Xiaoping Qian Kevin G. Harding, MEMBER SPIE General Electric Company Global Research Center Inspection and Manufacturing Technologies Schenectady, New York 12301 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Optical metrology has been widely used in quality inspection. However, the sensor setup during part inspection is often done in an ad hoc way. This leads to unnecessarily high signal dynamic range. Con...

We consider the problem of optimally maintaining a periodically inspected system that deteriorates according to a discrete-time Markov process and has a limit on the number of repairs that can be performed before it must be replaced. After each inspection, a decision maker must decide whether to repair the system, replace it with a new one, or leave it operating until the next inspection, where...

Broken rails are the most frequent cause of freight-train derailments in the United States. Consequently, reducing their occurrence is a high priority for the rail industry and the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration. Current practice is to periodically inspect rails to detect defects using nondestructive technology such as ultrasonic inspection. Determining the optimal rail inspection frequen...

Abstract This study presents an optimization approach for the design of a piping inspection robot. A rigid bio-inspired robot that moves like caterpillar was designed and developed at LS2N, France. By addition tensegrity mechanisms between motor modules, mobile becomes flexible to pass through bends. However, existing units prove be oversized passing pipe bends 90 deg. Thus, three cascading pro...

This note studies the optimal inspection policies in a supply chain in which a manufacturer purchases components from a supplier but has no direct control of component quality. The manufacturer uses an inspection policy and a damage cost sharing contract to encourage the supplier to improve the component quality. We find that all-or-none inspection policies are optimal for the manufacturer if t...