Automated Coverage Path Planning for Inspection of Panels Using Camera Viewpoints

The coverage of a surface using multiple view points is a topic of great interest for robotic path planning in inspection applications. Two approaches for coverage path planning are broadly addressed in the literature - geometric methods and optimization methods. Optimization methods frame the problem in terms of NP-hard problems such as traveling view planning, art gallery problem etc. While the optimization methods may be the most flexible, they are frequently difficult to implement in practical applications due to their NP hard nature. Geometric methods, while being less flexible, are more suitable for specific problems, and are fast and easy to implement. We present here a geometric algorithm for the coverage path planning of panels used for Aerospace applications using a generic camera model which can represent area inspection techniques like thermography and laser shearography. This algorithm relies on drawing a 2-D grid on the 3-D surface of the panel using geodesic lines on the surface. We show that the proposed algorithm has good results for real world scenarios involving the inspection of such panels, and emphasize its speed, simplicity and reliability for such applications.