Intelligent control of a multisensor inspection system

The authors describe a prototype vision system that has been designed to perform high-precision automatic inspection operations on industrial type objects. For maximum inspection flexibility and performance the system contains object and sensor manipulation capabilities, active and passive sensors, and a range of image transformation and analysis routines, all operating under knowledge-based control. Collectively, these hardware and software resources form building blocks that can be combined to answer inspection queries. The prototype inspection system, called LAIRD, is described, concentrating on the knowledge-based controller that automatically drives the system to achieve the desired detection, location, and inspection goals