IP Library Granted Patent US 7,930,259
Granted Patent B2
US 7,930,259 · App. 12/000,590 · Granted Apr 19, 2011

Apparatus for detecting vibrations of a test object using a competitive learning neural network in determining frequency characteristics generated

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,930,259
App. No.
12/000,590
Granted
Apr 19, 2011
Kind
B2
Abstract

A nondestructive inspection apparatus includes a sensor unit for detecting vibrations transmitted through a test object from a vibration generator and a signal input unit for extracting a target signal from an electric signal outputted from the sensor unit. An amount of characteristics extracting unit is also included for extracting multiple frequency components from the test signal as an amount of characteristics. Further, a decision unit has a competitive learning neural network for determining whether the amount of the characteristics belongs to a category, wherein the competitive learning neural network has been trained by using training samples belong to the category representing an internal state of the test object, wherein distributions of membership degrees of the training samples are set in the decision unit.

Claims (11)

1. A nondestructive inspection apparatus comprising:

a sensor unit for detecting vibrations transmitted through a test object from a vibration generator;

a signal input unit for extracting a target signal from an electric signal outputted from the sensor unit;

an amount of characteristics extracting unit for extracting multiple frequency components from the target signal as an amount of characteristics; and

a decision unit having a competitive learning neural network for determining whether the amount of the characteristics belongs to a category, wherein the competitive learning neural network has been trained by using training samples belonging to the category representing an internal state of the test object,

wherein distributions of membership degrees of the training samples are set in the decision unit, the distributions being set with respect to neurons excited by the training samples based on samples and weight vectors of the excited neurons, and

wherein the decision unit determines that the amount of characteristics belongs to the category, if one of the excited neurons is excited by the amount of characteristics and the distance between the amount of characteristics and a weight vector each of one or more of the excited neurons, corresponds to a membership degree equal to or higher than a threshold determined by the distributions.

2. The nondestructive inspection apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the distributions of the membership degrees are Gaussian distributions each being defined by a mean and a variance, and

wherein variances of the Gaussian distributions are determined by distances between the training samples and weight vectors of the excited neurons and means of the Gaussian distributions are weight vector of the excited neurons.

3. The nondestructive inspection apparatus of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the vibration generator includes a hammer to transmit vibrations to the inside of the test object by impacting same.

4. The nondestructive inspection apparatus of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the vibration generator includes an acoustic wave generator to generate acoustic waves as the vibrations.

Assignments (3)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 28, 2011
From: PANASONIC ELECTRIC WORKS CO., LTD.
To: PANASONIC ELECTRIC WORKS SUNX CO., LTD.
Reel/Frame 026982/0220 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jan 28, 2009
From: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC WORKS, LTD.
To: PANASONIC ELECTRIC WORKS CO., LTD.
Reel/Frame 022206/0574 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 14, 2007
From: HASHIMOTO, YOSHIHITO; HIMEZAWA, HIDEKAZU
To: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC WORKS, LTD.
Reel/Frame 020298/0524 →