HIGH-SPEED IMAGING Blink


Greg Blackman explores the cameras used to capture extremely rapid events


A


t the beginning of November, the Bloodhound land speed record car took another step closer to


attempting to break the world land speed record of 763mph, reaching 491mph in a test run in the South African desert. Te jet-propelled car, rescued from administration by businessman Ian Warhurst in December 2018, is the culmination of a decade of development, a project that’s more about showcasing engineering expertise, trialling new technology and inspiring students, rather than breaking the record per se. Te test runs in South Africa were to


gather data on every aspect of the vehicle, from how well the engine operates to braking and aerodynamics. Stemmer Imaging supplied cameras to test components early on in the Bloodhound project, including a high-speed camera from Optronis to study the rocket plume. Bloodhound is an extreme example of


a road vehicle – a cross between a car and a jet plane – and the cameras used in the project have to image very fast events such as jet engine ignition. But all automotive manufacturers make use of high-speed cameras to some extent, to test the performance and safety of new cars. Aicon 3D Systems, for example, has built an optical measurement system based on high-speed cameras, which records the performance of


Kaya Instruments’ JetCam, with a Camera Link HS interface to transfer video over fibre optic cabling


wheels being tested in prototype vehicles. WheelWatch uses Mikrotron EoSens cameras to measure parameters such as track, camber inclination, spring travel, clearance and steering angle of car wheels, all while driving at speeds of up to 155mph. Automotive manufacturers will drive


prototype vehicles millions of miles for testing. WheelWatch is used to monitor the wheels to see how they behave during extreme manoeuvres, how they handle bumps and wet roads, and whether the wheel wells provide enough room when making sharp turns. Te EoSens cameras used in this system


are able to run at 1.3-megapixel resolution at 500 frames per second, with 90dB dynamic range. One camera is attached per wheel. Coded measurement targets are placed on the mudguard with which each camera aligns itself. Te system recalculates its position continuously in relation to these mudguard targets to achieve positional accuracy of ±0.1mm and angular accuracy of ±0.015°. Te wheel is also fitted with a pattern of dots to collect the data. Up to four cameras can be synchronised


with each other, and other measurement sensors. Movements in the engine block can also be detected using additional cameras.


14 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 Tis sort of monitoring system is a typical


example of where high-speed cameras are used – recording fast events when testing automotive or aerospace components. Michael Yampolsky, CEO of Kaya Instruments, which supplies high-speed cameras, defines high-speed imaging as any application requiring more than 20Gb/s of bandwidth, which is 2-megapixel resolution at 1,000fps or 5 megapixels at 400fps. In factories, cameras operating at


high frame rates are predominantly for troubleshooting machinery and not traditional inspection, according to Stephen Ferrell, director of business development, Americas, at Mikrotron. Conveyance transfer points, filling, capping, labelling, stamping, indexing, stacking, inserting, cutting and trimming are operations Ferrell listed that can occur in milliseconds and require hundreds to thousands of frames per second to capture and analyse motion components of the machines. Tese processes occur across many industries, such as automotive, consumer products, electronics and pharmaceuticals. When operating at fast frame rates, FPGA


or GPU processors become important for image analysis in real time, says Yampolsky. Te WheelWatch images are assessed


onboard a Mikrotron camera equipped with an FPGA before they are sent to a laptop inside the car via a GigE interface. Wheel


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