The Whole Picture

Panoramo 2 inspection system captures complete pipe interior images for careful examination later in an office setting

Self-propelled cameras have become a necessity for inspecting and diagnosing sewer problems. The technology traditionally relies on video photography, with features like pan, tilt and zoom.

On a sewer inspection job, the camera makes a record of its trip through the pipe, while the operator pays close attention in real time to uncover and document defects and issues along the way.

The Panoramo 2 optical scanner, manufactured by the German company IBAK Helmut Hunger GmbH and distributed in North America by RapidView LLC of Rochester, Ind., takes a different approach.

Instead of using video technology, the system collects and records digital still images as it progresses through the pipe. The most distinctive feature of the system is not the camera itself but the software that accompanies it. Once the unit collects the data, software analyzes it and uses it to construct a complete image of the pipe that can be examined thoroughly and at leisure on a desktop or laptop computer at the office. This approach significantly increases overall pipe survey productivity.

The technology will not replace traditional video inspection — it is designed for communities or contractors that do pipe inspection in volumes large enough so that gains in productivity offset the substantially higher up-front investment.

The Panoramo 2 is the first version of the system to be available in the United States, coming to market here in the fall of 2007. The original Panoramo, introduced in 2002, was available primarily in Europe.

On April 29, 2008, Matthew Sutton, RapidView vice president for sales and marketing, and Andy Melton, western sales manager, demonstrated the Panoramo 2 by using it to inspect a sewer in Rochester, then demonstrating the software back in the RapidView offices just outside of town.

Walk-around

The Panoramo optical scanner consists of a 25-inch-long cylinder mounted on a self-propelled ­crawler. Wheelsets on the crawler can be interchanged as desired to accommodate various pipe sizes, and an elevating device lets the operator center the camera in the pipe.

The scanner is equipped with two fixed 1.4 megapixel, high-resolution digital cameras, one at either end of the cylinder. Each camera has a fish-eye lens that gives it a 185-degree view — slightly more than a half-sphere.

Surrounding each camera lens is a Xenon strobe flash that emits light in bursts of 1/2000 of a second to take still pictures. The only moving parts are in the crawler mechanism; the scanner itself has none. The unit is pressurized to prevent infiltration of water from inside the sewer.

At the rear of the unit is a terminal to connect with a fiber optic cable that transmits signals from the camera back to the computer from which it is operated. Strain relief is built into the cable. The scanner is lowered into place from a winch mounted at the rear of the truck that includes controls for the crawler.

The scanner is operated from a truck equipped with a desktop computer equipped with joysticks and a separate liquid crystal display (LCD) control and diagnostics panel. The panel allows control of the device and relays basic information on the scanner’s condition, such as the pressure of the device and its distance into the pipe.

As the scanner proceeds through the pipe, it records forward and rear images every two inches of travel. The images are recorded by computer software, which combines them to make a complete, 360-degree photographic record of the inspection.

“We’re taking still pictures every two inches and then blending them together,” explains RapidView founder and president Rex Robison. The images then can be transferred via a recorded DVD for examination on any computer.

The Panoramo system includes a scanner program that processes and displays the photographic record. The Panoramo program can be tightly integrated with the WinCan pipe survey application, operating underneath WinCan. It is not limited to use with that application, and users of other pipeline survey database programs can enter data in their preferred application. Regardless of what survey application is used, the customer can be given a copy of the survey record and view it without additional software.

A video mode is available at 8 frames per second to view movement within the pipe, such as water inflow.

Operation

Sutton and Melton drove from the RapidView offices to a residential neighborhood on a side street and opened a manhole. After hooking up the scanning unit to the transmission cable and threading the cable through a deflection pulley to protect it from sharp edges at the pipe entrance, Melton lowered the scanner into the pipe.

Melton oriented the scanner in the pipeline entry using the winch controls. Once it was properly positioned, Sutton worked at the computer terminal in the truck, opening the WinCan software to name the pipe segment and record other header information. He did not make any observations at this stage, but simply controlled the scanner as it proceeded through a 216-foot pipe section, recording images.

When at one point the speed of the scanner caused it to overshoot a short section of the pipeline, leading to a gap in the image, the software immediately notified Sutton. He reversed the scanner to pick up the missing image, then proceeded forward to finish the remaining stretch.

Altogether, Melton and Sutton spent just over 35 minutes on site, including setup, data collection, cleanup and disassembly of the equipment. As they returned to the office, the computer completed the task of compiling the images for viewing.

In an office back at the company, Sutton took a DVD containing the data and a WinCan viewer and inserted it into a computer with two screens. Navigating to the viewer on the DVD, he clicked on it to open the WinCan interface. The database grid showed a row representing the just-completed inspection. Sutton clicked on a Scan icon and opened the inspection interface.

Five windows appeared, and Sutton arranged them across the two screens. (Figure 1 indicates how the collection of windows looks on a single computer screen):

• Section View represented a map of the line inspected.

• Sidescan Overview showed the entire line, from beginning to end, as if it had been sliced open and flattened out (Figure 2).

• ScanExplorer: Viewer Mode also showed the sliced-open, flattened-out view, but in the form of a close-up of a short stretch of pipe.

• Front View provided a circular picture looking straight down the pipe (Figure 3).

• The IBAK Panoramo Viewer also showed a view straight down the pipe.

In the Sidescan Overview, the software had drawn green lines to mark the pipe joints. While the software had not correctly identified all joints, it had located significantly more than half. It also had identified and marked two laterals.

Sutton moved the cursor to click on a lateral visible 42 feet into the line on the Sidescan Overview. Immediately, that section became visible in close-up in the Scan Explorer: Viewer Mode (Figure 4), Front View (Figure 5), and Panoramo Viewer windows.

Now the Panoramo Viewer window, instead of looking straight down the pipe, showed the view straight into the lateral (Figure 6). Meanwhile the Front View image showed the view straight ahead and the lateral in the upper left-hand quadrant of the image.

Moving the mouse inside the Panoramo Viewer image window, Sutton moved the image around in a virtual pan-and-tilt, enabling him to thoroughly view the spot where the lateral entered the sewer line. He then panned again back toward a straight-ahead view. Finally, he fully restored the straight-ahead view in that window by tapping on the computer spacebar.

“The Panoramo view is what makes this product unique, and that’s the ability to virtually pan and tilt, anywhere in the pipeline, after you’ve done the inspection,” Robison explains.

Observer comments

The images created by the Panoramo 2 were sharp and crisp, looking slightly more intense and artificial than conventional photographs — they were reminiscent of recent popular movies such as Beowulf that use live-action performers but employ digital effects. It takes some effort to learn to manipulate the mouse in the Panoramo Viewer mode, but the result gives a complete pan-and-tilt effect that can be done anywhere in the pipeline and after the field inspection is completed.

The pipeline inspected did not show any serious defects requiring attention, but the clarity of the images made it apparent that such defects could be easily detected if present. Having the Sidescan Overview available side-by-side with the other, localized views made it easy to jump back and forth in a particular pipeline to view whatever segment the operator desired.

Manufacturer comments

The use of the bright Xenon strobe light combined with rapidly shot still images makes for much sharper images than can be captured on video, according to Robison. Conventional video images have movement in every frame, blurring the images slightly.

In addition, the digital still images contain up to 3,000 lines of resolution, six times what conventional 500-line video images produce. “So we’re able to detect more defects, we’re able to see things in greater detail, we’re able to zoom digitally without loss of image quality,” Robison says.

NASSCO standards require inspection speeds of no more than 30 feet per minute. The Panoramo 2 scanner can run up to 69 feet per minute without losing any data. Initially, some prospective users don’t realize that they can run the machine that fast and still adhere to the NASSCO standard, but they can, because data collection and inspection are not the same thing.

“The inspection doesn’t happen in the field,” Sutton explains. “The inspection happens when we’re back in the office. And users can conduct that inspection at any speed they desire.”

Moreover, the ability to get a bird’s-eye view of the entire pipeline fundamentally changes the approach to inspection. Even back in the office, operators are unlikely to actually “drive” through the pipe in the way conventional video inspectors do.

“They can move around through that pipeline much faster and find defects much more quickly because of the multiple views,” Sutton says. IBAK studies have found that the Panoramo unit can enable operators to inspect twice as much pipe as with the company’s own Argus 4 video system, and attain significantly greater accuracy.

While the Panoramo system is much more costly up front, Suttons says users who inspect 500,000 to 750,000 feet or more in a year can recoup the investment in improved productivity. “Anytime you need two trucks, Panoramo pays off, because you can do the same work with less expense,” Sutton says. “You can replace those two TV trucks with one Panoramo system.”

Adds Robison: “This is a produc-tion tool. As a contractor, it puts more profits in your pocket. As a municipal user, it meets your deadlines quicker for less money.”



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.