ECE 497
Capstone Design
Will Barrett Asato Tashiro Adam Anderson
Purpose of the System
• The purpose is to create a scanning system to
determine the location and size of metal
fragments in a medium density fiber panel.
Background Information
• The Weapons Integration & Development
Directorate of the US Army Aviation and Missile
Research, Development, & Engineering Center
performs a variety of munitions and warhead test
programs
– Known as the “AMRDEC”
– Patrick Taylor is our sponsor
• They use bundles of fiber panels to capture
shrapnel from the explosions
• Each bundle is then searched BY HAND to recover
fragments, tabulate the X/Y position, and mass
for each panel
– The panel location is used to determine the depth of
the fragment
Background Information (cont’d)
• The process can take up to 100 man hours PER PANEL
• Each bundle could require up to 96 panels, or 9600 manhours per bundle
• Removal is done outside on the test range
– Personnel have to be in protective clothing
– Fragments are bagged by weight
– Fragments have to be cleaned and decontaminated for safe
handling
• Fragments are typically steel, but some tests use titanium
or aluminum
• Data derived from the analysis is tabulated in a spreadsheet
format, with the fragment designation, count, bundle and
panel number, X/Y location, and size/weight
Fragment Set Weight Distribution
STEEL WARHEAD FRAGMENT SET
FOR FRAG BUNDLE SCANNER TESTING
Totals\Wt Range
Quantity
Total Wt. (g)
Avg. Wt. (g)
% of Total Captured Wt.
<.25g
235
34.185
0.145
2.89%
.25g - .75g .75g - 2g 2g - 5g
272
271
157
130.017 346.711 467.746
0.478
1.279
2.979
10.99% 29.29% 39.52%
5g - 7g
19
109.794
5.779
39.52%
7g - 10g
7
64.433
8.919
9.28%
10+g
3
32.659
10.886
2.76%
Typical Fragment Morphology
Project Objective
• Automate analysis procedures to the
maximum degree feasible
– Analysis of X/Y location goal is 15 minutes/panel
• Portability – system can be setup by 1 person
• Battery operated equipment is desirable
Measurement Parameters
• X/Y resolution of .5”
• Minimum fragment detection of .25g
Approach
• Demonstrate a proof-of-concept capability
that can be scaled up at a later time
• Use commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
equipment to produce a gray-scale image of
the fragments contained in a panel
• Process image to identify the centroid of each
fragment and X/Y location
– Output .csv file with the fragment location data
COTS Imaging Systems
• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
• Industrial Radiography
What is Ground Penetrating Radar?
• GPR is a non-destructive imaging method that uses
radar pulses to image the subsurface
• The radar pulses used are in the microwave band of
the radio spectrum
How does GPR work?
• GPR is similar to a metal detector
• The GPR system sends out thousands of RF
frequency pulses into the ground
• The frequencies that are reflected back return to the
antennae
• Frequency analysis of the reflected RF energy allows
correlation of different material compositions in the
subsurface
GPR Schematic
Typical Applications
•
•
•
•
Pipe Locating
Archeology
IED Locating (Improvised Explosive Devices)
Quality control of reinforced concrete
Ground Penetrating Radar
GPR Scans
Benefits of GPR
• Usable in the field
– Man-Portable
– Battery operated
• Integrated imaging process
• Cost beneficial
– Low start-up
– Easy operation
– Low maintenance
What is Industrial Radiography
• Industrial Radiography is also a non-destructive
detection method which utilizes X-rays and gamma
rays to view materials
How Industrial Radiography Works
• Similar to medical radiography, Industrial radiography
uses an X-ray source to bombard a sample with highenergy radiation onto a film or a digital detector
• This creates a 2D image of the different materials in
the sample.
Radiography Schematic
Radiography Components
• Source
Typical Applications
• Security
• Medical Imaging
• Non-Destructive Testing
– Castings
– Welds
Medical X-Ray Radiography
X-Ray Source
Imaging Surface
Industrial Radiography
Benefits of Industrial Radiography
• Extremely accurate
• Detects and categorizes different metals
• Years of precedents have been set
Simulated Fragment Panel Analysis
• We scanned a random sample of shrapnel
pieces
• Used Photoshop to render a black and white
image
• Used program Pixcavator 6.0 to analyze .tif file
for information on size, X/Y location,
thickness, length, etc.
• Information is exported to an excel
spreadsheet for analysis
Simulated Fragment Panel
Simulated Fragment Panel
Black and White
Simulated Panel with Border Detection
Image Analysis Data
Pixcavator 6.0
Dark objects:
Light objects
61
0
OUTPUT
ID
Type Location X Location Y
1
D
192
110
Size
210
Perim.
Round.
Gray
59
76
44
Contrast
211
Thick.
11
Length
ID
17
1
2
D
105
140
225
62
72
45
210
11
20
2
3
D
530
147
198
54
84
38
217
13
13
3
4
D
324
257
638
110
66
28
227
16
38
4
5
6
D
D
471
270
309
329
1025
123
151
43
56
81
23
63
232
192
17
10
57
10
5
6
7
D
164
365
168
53
74
52
203
10
16
7
8
9
D
D
540
270
412
241
115
364
42
88
80
58
50
40
205
215
10
10
10
33
8
9
10
D
139
183
236
61
77
43
212
13
17
10
11
12
D
D
434
229
443
408
477
3778
87
377
78
33
31
17
224
238
19
22
23
165
11
12
13
14
D
D
407
140
382
426
4338
816
414
201
32
25
16
39
239
216
23
8
183
91
13
14
15
D
54
413
1018
164
47
27
228
15
67
15
16
17
D
D
346
110
430
429
362
253
77
62
76
80
34
36
221
219
15
15
22
15
16
17
18
19
D
D
319
510
417
418
287
1287
74
165
65
59
40
21
215
234
10
20
26
61
18
19
20
D
353
392
322
77
67
35
220
12
26
20
Program Plan
• Contact vendors
– Image dummy panels using radiography and GPR
– Utilize 2D images for image processing study
• Image Processing Approach
– 2D grayscale image can be processed using
MATLAB to determine the centroid and area of
each fragment
– Tabulate fragments by area and X/Y location
Current Status
• Dummy panels have been fabricated
• They will be shipped/delivered to USRadar,
Hayes, ATS, and University Hospital this week
• Start analysis of our simulated fragment panel
this week
Questions?