Predictive maintenance in the energy infrastructure sector is an important use case, where neuromorphic technology can help improve existing systems.
Researchers from WSU’s International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) just announced they’ve developed a PoC on an ANYmal industrial inspection robot (manufactured by Swiss company ANYbotics, founded in 2016 as a spin-off from ETH Zürich’s research in quadrupedal robotics) “by pairing a custom ultrasonic microphone array with neuromorphic signal processing”.
The same payload is slated to fly on drones soon, “enabling kilometre-scale inspections of transmission corridors and pipelines. This milestone is the first step toward a fully automated, drone-based inspection system for long-distance energy infrastructure.”
Autonomous Industrial Safety Inspection! The International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) team, in partnership with the Factories of the Future group at WSU’s Bankstown campus, has just wrapped up a successful proof-of-concept on an ANYmal robot dog. By pairing a custom ultrasonic...
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By the way, wouldn’t you have thought that André van Schaik coming onto the BrainChip Scientific Advisory Board last August (who then moved to the UK in April to set up another International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems at the University of Manchester, where he now holds the Furber Chair of Neuromorphic Systems Engineering) would have resulted in some kind of formal collaboration between BrainChip and ICNS?
But so far crickets…
And then of course there is Optera Solutions (
www.optera.au), the start-up that was spun out off ICNS last year to commercialise the event-based sensing technology developed at WSU. Optera’s initial focus is to provide neuromorphic solutions to the space and defence sector. They were selected to join the sixth-month Thales Space Business Catalyst Program in Toulouse (from September 2024).
Australian start-up Optera Solutions has been selected to join the Thales Alenia Space Accelerator Program in its French hub of Toulouse, France.
www.thalesgroup.com
André van Schaik is co-founder and CTO of Optera. I wonder what our chances are to partner with them?
Some more background info about ultrasonic leak detection in general:
Learn here how ultrasonic leak detection can reduce energy costs for compressed air and gas systems, improve safety, and help to optimize your maintenance.
www.advancedtech.com
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When leaks occur in pressurized systems — such as compressed air or gas systems — the leak will emit a sound at a frequency above that which can be detected by the human ear. Ultrasonic leak detection uses advanced sound emission technology to identify and locate these leaks, which is accomplished by detecting the high-frequency vibration that occurs in the air or the medium at the source of the leak.
Ultrasonic leak testing is extremely useful in support of
predictive maintenance operations, since these often-tiny leaks are indicative of larger operational issues to come, including drops in efficiency as well as safety issues and whole-system shutdowns.
Ultrasonic maintenance can take many forms and can be applied to several types of equipment. Most frequently, ultrasonic technology will be used for compressed air leak detection, gas leak detection and vacuum leak detection. It can also be used for bearings and pumps.
- Inspection of complex air and gas pipework systems: Compressed air is a critical need in keeping a facility operational. Many facilities also require the availability of other compressed gases. These key needs are delivered from a central location throughout the facility via a complex network of pipes. A leak anywhere in the system can mean a drop in pressure that will affect equipment performance and increase energy usage — and costs. Ultrasonic leak detection is the fastest and most reliable way to identify even the smallest leak in a system — which can later become a major problem.
- Safety improvements: When compressed air is leaking, loss of efficiency is the primary concern. However, when hazardous or dangerous gases are leaking from a system, safety quickly becomes the main concern. These leaks must be detected and acted upon more quickly since they can put operators and other personnel in immediate and grave danger.
- Bearings and pumps: These types of rotating equipment have distinctive acoustic signatures in terms of frequency and vibration of the surrounding air. Regular checks with ultrasonic inspection equipment can reveal the underpinnings of problems, for example, if the equipment is operating above an acceptable maximum of rotation, or if current operation conditions differ significantly from historical average conditions.
- Integration of ultrasonic inspection equipment and today’s manufacturing technology: While ultrasonic leak detection has been available for quite some time, it can now be integrated into maintenance technology systems for more automated, efficient, and effective operation.
Processes that were previously completed manually — testing, documentation, prioritization, and maintenance ticketing — can now be completed automatically, with results from numerous testing points being constantly fed into a central data and analytics system. This results in increased maintenance efficiency and effectiveness.”
en.m.wikipedia.org
