ABSTRACT
This paper presents a novel method for inspecting the interior surface of pipes using laser-optics. The variation in the local curvature of a laser ring projected onto the pipe’s surface is measured via an image taken by an omnidirectional camera, hence the name omnidirectional laser optics. There will be sharp changes in the curvature when the laser ring passes over defects (i.e., dents, cracks, sliver, bad weld trims, etc.). Computationally-traceable digital-geometry-based metrics are used to calculate the change in curvature through an elliptical curve fitting in real time. Experimental results prove the high performance of the proposed method for detecting small defects at a high resolution and in a short time.
