TITLE:  Ranger Automated Visual Inspection System

JPL, Paul Backes and Bob Balaram

Reviewed by Eric Krotkov, epk@cs, 3058, 243-0916

OBJECTIVES:
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The basic idea is to take the visual inspection stuff developed for
Samad's "Remote Surface Inspection" (RSI) Task and apply it to the Ranger
TFX.

JUSTIFICATION:
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Primary customer/beneficiary is Space Station.  Would also benefit
operators of unmanned space platforms.

APPROACH:
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JPL will fabricate a Ranger taskboard, and test with it at JPL.

JPL will modify their R.S.I. ground station to meet Ranger needs.  These
modifications appear to be cosmetic, that is, new interface code but no
new inspection code.

DELIVERABLES:
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JPL will deliver the taskboard and a ground station to UMD.  The ground
station will contain software for:
*  generating inspection scan paths
*  generating trajectories to desired viewpoints
*  comparing images with an earlier reference image
*  archiving and annotating images

LOGISTICS SUMMARY:
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FY96	300
FY97	250
Total	550


OPINION:
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The funding request seems high (by perhaps a factor of two or more)
for a tech transer (not tech development) task.

The RSI system is pretty nice package:  solid inspection code and a
professional front end.  I am confident that this could help the Ranger
effort.

This project has virtually zero risk, and will deliver a moderate benefit
to Ranger.

How strongly does Akin support?