US Patent 9470658 Self-contained holonomic tracking method and apparatus for non-destructive inspection

A self-contained, holonomic motion tracking solution for supplementing the acquisition of inspection information on the surface of a structure, thereby enabling the real-time production of two-dimensional images from hand-held and automated scanning by holonomic-motion of non-destructive inspection (NDI) sensor units (e.g., NDI probes). The systems and methods disclosed enable precise tracking of the position and orientation of a holonomic-motion NDI sensor unit (hand-held or automated) and conversion of the acquired tracking data into encoder pulse signals for processing by a NDI scanning system.