CAMERAS AND LIGHTS POSITIONING SYSTEM FOR HOSE INSPECTION DURING AIR-TO-AIR REFUELING AND INSPECTION PROCEDURES

Abstract

Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling, which comprises a substructure that can be attached to a container or capsule or Pod, one or two guidance-substructures (13) that enclose the hose, a toroid volume, to house the cameras (22) and lights (23) and a cameras and lights control subsystem. The system allows for the cameras (22) and lights (23) to maintain a fixed relative position with respect to the hose (1) during moments of imagery acquisition, despite the inclination and the five different movements that the hose has and makes, at the same time allowing protuberances (38) to pass through the system.

Claims

1. A Cameras and lights positioning system for inspection of a hose during air-to-air refueling, comprising: A mechanical structure that can be fitted to a container, capsule or Pod, and consisting of: a fixation structure (10) with a lug (12) on each end thereof for attachment to the container, capsule or Pod (3), Both horizontal (7) and vertical (14) slide bars, including two horizontal (7) slide bars and two vertical slide bars (14), where the ends of the horizontal slide bars (7) are connected to upper and lower ends of the fixation structure (10), while the vertical slide bars (14) are mounted on the lower horizontal slide bar; A primary guidance-substructure (13) mounted in the mechanical structure wherein the primary guidance-substructure (13) encloses the hose, and the primary guidance-substructure (13) moves with the hose sliding over its sliding-bars both horizontal (7) and vertical (14) and that supports the following elements: a support structure, skate-wheels (19) configured to roll over a surface of the hose for pushing and displacing the primary guidance-substructure over the horizontal (7) and vertical slide bars (14), and Axles (20) or bars to carry the skate-wheels and allow the skate-wheels to spin; A toroid volume provided with cameras (22) and lights (23) and wherein the toroid volume is attached to the primary guidance-substructure (13); and A control subsystem with a memory, which determines when each of the lights (23) is switched on and off and when each of the cameras (22) starts and ends its exposure time, combined with a connection to an aircraft to receive commands and be able to download imagery, as well as a power supply and corresponding interconnection wiring between all its electronic parts; and wherein the primary guidance-substructure is configured to change the position of the cameras and lights to maintain a constant relative position to the hose (1) as the hose moves.

2. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, further including two pairs of inclination-arms (5) which are mounted on the fixation structure (10) and that compensate an initial inclination that the hose's longitudinal axis forms with respect to a longitudinal axis of the container, capsule or Pod.

3. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein the primary guidance-substructure also includes: Skates (15) for tangential movement that facilitate the hose or any irregularity it may contain, such as a sleeve (38) with a larger diameter, to pass.

4. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 3, wherein the wheels (19) of the primary guidance-substructure (13) and/or the skates (15), include a set of springs (8) that fasten the wheels and/or the skates to the substructure and that cushion shocks or “impacts” from the hose.

5. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, that additionally comprises a secondary guidance-substructure (16) that encloses the hose, suspended to the primary guidance-substructure (13) that moves with the hose and that equally to the primary guidance-substructure and including: A support substructure, sliding wheels that will roll over the hose surface, and that allow the hose to push and displace the secondary guidance-substructure, and Axles or bars to carry the sliding wheels and allow the sliding wheels to spin; wherein the primary guidance-substructure (13) and the secondary guidance-substructure (16) are connected with substructure joining-rods (9) that are composed of an extensible element that is attached to ball joints (36) fixed to each of the primary guidance-substructure (13) and the secondary guidance-substructure (16), and where also the toroidal volume (18) with the lights (23) and cameras (22) is attached to the joining-rods (9).

6. Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein its primary guidance-substructure and/or secondary guidance-substructure also consist of: Skates (17) for tangential movement that facilitate the hose or any irregularity it may contain, such as a coupling sleeve (38) with a larger diameter, to pass.

7. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 5, wherein the wheels (19) of the secondary guidance-substructure (16) and/or the skates (17) of the substructure (16) have a set of springs (8) that fasten them to the substructure and that cushion shocks or “impacts” from the hose.

8. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein the primary guidance-substructure comprises of low friction cylinders on slide-bars which slide over these bars, allowing movement of the system by the hose's own push due to its movement with very little effort.

9. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1 wherein in addition, some of the lights (23) used to illuminate the hose (1) surface are polarized.

10. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the cameras (22) used to capture the hose surface includes a lens that is polarized.

11. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1 wherein the utilized lights (23) are of various wavelengths and are set up at different angles to illuminate the hose surface (1).

12. Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein the cameras (22) have distinct filters on different pixels of an image sensor thereof in order to “see” specific wavelengths and no others.

13. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein the cameras (22) have a redundant configuration, so that in case of failure of any of the cameras a remainder of the cameras can form a complete image around a surface of the hose (1).

14. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein either the cameras or the control subsystem have a capability to compress the imagery from cameras in order to reduce an amount of information needed to recompose the “photo” of the hose (1) surface.

15. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, further comprising a program that composes the “photo” of the hose (1) surface, as soon as the imagery is captured by the different cameras (22).

16. Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1 wherein it comprises a program that analyzes the “photo” of the hose surface and detects critical areas of damage that might exist on the hose surface.

17. Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, further including energy storage elements such as super-capacitors, from which to extract the energy needed for the lights (23) and to avoid charging an aircraft with peak power demands when switching the lights on.

18. The Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 1, wherein the areas of the hose to be illuminated are arranged so that each area corresponds to a camera, except for guard zones, the first 22.5° will be illuminated by a first light or a set of lights 23-1, placed next to the camera (22) as seen from the front; a second quarter will be illuminated by second lights 23-2, where the third 23-3 and the fourth 23-4 quarters are symmetrical to the first two, as well as the corresponding lights that do not interfere geometrically with the lights needed to illuminate the areas that correspond to adjacent cameras, reproducing that arrangement with three more cameras and their corresponding lights until the transverse perimeter of the hose has been covered.

19. A procedure for a Cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling, comprising: Start of the In-flight retraction or extension operation of the hose (1), At the same time the retraction or the extension of the hose (1) starts, we switch-on the lights that will illuminate the areas of the hose (1) surface which do not have common intersections and therefore do not interfere each other, For the camera (22) or set of cameras that correspond to the illuminated area we will capture the image during the corresponding exposure time t.sub.e, calculated so that the hose movement will not create blurred imagery, The captured imagery is saved to the systems' memory, repeating the previous image capturing process for each camera or set of cameras until every section of the hose, what we call the ring of the hose and which is a cylinder that reflects the all around external image of a length of the hose, has been covered, The previous steps will be repeated for each section of the hose (1) or hose ring with a frame rate of fps until all hose rings have been covered over the hose's full length, When the hose (1) has finished the indicated process in the second step, the controller will indicate this and will switch-off the lights (23) as well as terminate image capturing by the cameras (22), The system stops, waiting for the command to download the data from the memory for processing and composing of the “photo”.

20. The Procedure for cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 19, further including using polarized lights (23) and/or cameras (22) in order to obtain images free of certain reflections and glares.

21. The Procedure for cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 19, further including using multispectral filter in front of a sensor of the cameras (22), that the multispectral filter configured to filter light with specific polarizations.

22. The Procedure for cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 19, further including applying colored lights that illuminate the area to be captured by each corresponding camera (22) from different angles.

23. Procedure for cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 19, wherein it composes the “photo” of the hose (1) surface, from the moment that the imagery is captured by the different cameras (22).

24. The Procedure for cameras and lights positioning system for hose inspection during air-to-air refueling according to claim 19, wherein it comprises a program that analyzes the “photo” of the hose (1) surface and detects critical areas of damage that might exist on the hose surface.

Description

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES

[0126] To complement the description that is given herein and with the purpose of helping a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, as an integral part of that description and according to a preferred example of the practical realization of the invention, the following is represented in a set of drawings, by way of illustrative and non-limitative character:

[0127] FIG. 1 shows us a schematic representation of the cross-section of a drum where the hose rolls up to or rolls off from.

[0128] FIG. 2 shows us a cross-section of a “Pod” (3) with its most essential elements functioning within. The drum or the reel (2) where the hose rolls up to (1) and the drogue (4) at the end of the hose (1).

[0129] FIG. 3 shows us on a larger scale a front and elevation view of the drum (2) and of the position structure of our system and imagery acquisition which is mounted inside the Pod (3).

[0130] FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of the inclination (a) and the different types of movement or degrees of freedom of the hose, which cause the system's complexity to obtain a constant relative position with respect to the hose.

[0131] FIG. 5 shows the hose divided in frames (31) that will have to be combined both transversal as well as longitudinal to obtain the “photo” of the hose.

[0132] FIG. 6 shows the structure object of this invention from a frontal view.

[0133] FIG. 7 represents elevation and perspective views of the system's skates (15, 17).

[0134] FIG. 8 shows the system object of this invention in a lateral perspective.

[0135] FIG. 9 highlights within the two ellipses the guidance-substructures of the system, a fixed primary guidance-substructure (13) on the left and a suspended secondary guidance-substructure on the right. Both enable the ring of cameras and lights to stay perpendicular to the hose.

[0136] FIG. 10 shows a Cartesian schematic of the hose (1) and the different relative directions of the cameras and illumination.

[0137] FIG. 11 shows 4 sets of lights (23) used to illuminate the area of interest of the hose (1) for one specific camera (22).

[0138] FIG. 12 shows a diagram of the invention's electronic system and of the connections regarding signals and power supply (35) from the aircraft.

[0139] FIG. 13 shows schematically how a connecting rod would be implemented between the guidance-substructures.

[0140] FIG. 14 shows us a cross-section of the hose (1) including the elements which are part of a guidance substructure.

[0141] FIG. 15 shows an elevation view of a longitudinal section of the hose (1), displaying the coupling sleeve (38) and two positions of the skates and skate-wheels (19) on the left.

[0142] FIG. 15 to the right shows the two positions of the wheels and coupling sleeve when respectively the hose and the coupling sleeve pass through the substructure.

[0143] At the end of the description of the invention's preferred implementation, a list is added to this document with the names of the elements shown in the figures in order to allow better search and locate each of them.

PREFERRED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INVENTION

[0144] With respect to the figures, a preferred implementation method of the proposed invention is described below. Without imposing limitations, it aims to explain the realization of a specific implementation and its functionality of it, with the main purpose to illustrate more in detail the properties that define this invention.

[0145] FIG. 1 shows a drum (2) where the hose (1) rolls onto or rolls off from. This drum is located inside a container or capsule which houses the hose (1) and which we from now on will call Pod, that generally is placed under the wing of an aircraft. An aircraft with this configuration can be named “tanker” and it can supply fuel to other aircraft by the hose and drogue method.

[0146] FIG. 2 shows the inside of a Pod (3), in which we have placed the system object of this invention and through which the hose passes. We pursue the rolling-off and rolling-up movement of the hose (1) in-flight, to simultaneously to this process have the system acquire the information on the hose surface.

[0147] The system the object of the invention, as shown in FIG. 3, is secured on the inside of the Pod (3) using lugs (12) which are fastened to a fixation structure (10), through which the hose (1) will pass in its full length.

[0148] The system consists of a set of cameras (22) and lights (23) placed on a ring around the hose. The system's purpose is to achieve a very high quality in captured imagery of the hose (1) and a high level of consistency regarding the generated imagery and the degree of illumination that each camera receives. Therefore, for the purpose above, a main objective of the system is to always maintain those cameras (22) and lights (23) at the same distance to the hose.

[0149] Due to the hose rolling on to (or off) the drum inside the pod, an inclination angle (α) appears in relation to the orthogonal plane to the hose (1) axis, as a consequence of its angle when rolling on to (or off) that drum (2), (see a in FIGS. 3, 4, and 9).

[0150] On top of that, the position of the hose (1) will be moving both in horizontal direction (H) (enabling several rounds on the drum) and in vertical direction (V) (enabling several levels on the drum, with different winding radii on the drum). This is how the previous facts are indicated in the FIGS. 3, 4 and 9 with the angle (α) and in FIG. 4 with the arrows (H) and (V). In other words, we are dealing with a fixed inclination angle and two different movements of the hose (1) in relation to the Pod (3), which we consider as our fixed reference.

[0151] Also, and as a consequence of firstly the exterior aerodynamics and the maneuvers of the tanker and secondly the different rotation angle of the hose on the drum, the drogue (4) can produce a drag force pulling the hose in different directions (1) and change its direction with respect to rolling off the drum. This change of the direction of the drogue's (4) movement can be vertical or pitch (P) or horizontal or yaw (R) as indicated in FIG. 4. Therefore, we have two additional movements or degrees of freedom.

[0152] In short, as above mentioned, we have a fixed initial angle (a) and five degrees of freedom corresponding to the four previous ones (H), (V), (P), (R), together combined with the longitudinal movement (L) of the hose during its extension/retraction process and also the changing hose diameter due to the coupling sleeve that needs to pass through the system.

[0153] As stated, the objective of our system to preserve a high degree of quality in the captured imagery, is to maintain the cameras (22) and lights (23) in a fixed relative position in relation to the hose. That is why the system object of this invention will compensate all the previous movements and inclination and it will do so as follows:

[0154] To compensate the fixed inclination a due to unrolling off the drum, the system consists of two pairs of arms (5) of different lengths that give that inclination to the rest of the system (FIGS. 8 and 9).

[0155] To compensate the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) movements, the system comprises a primary guidance-substructure (13), octagonal shaped (see FIG. 9) in this preferred implementation, in which four wheels (19) have been placed, with a 90° difference with respect to the next wheel, all with their axles (20) (FIG. 7) perpendicular to the hose axis. It is the wheels' mission to ‘roll’ over the hose surface (1) in order for the substructure to follow the hose's movement. The springs supporting the wheels tend to place them in the center of the substructure to make it follow the hose's position. FIG. 14 shows a cross-section, where four wheels (19), corresponding to this preferred implementation, roll over the hose (1) making the spring-wheel assembly embrace it and the substructure follow the hose.

[0156] This primary guidance-substructure (13) aims for the hose to pass on the inside of the structure with as little friction as possible, hence the wheels (19). But also, as the hose moves horizontally (H) and vertically (V) it intends to move this substructure evenly with the hose itself. As mentioned, to attach this substructure as close as possible to the hose (1) some springs (8) have been added. And considering that the hose's diameter may vary, as in our case due to the existence of a coupling sleeve, increasing it considerably, skates (15) have been introduced. These functionally increase the wheels' radius and they generate the same result as the wheels of following the hose in case of an increased diameter of the hose. The skates (15) functionality is very similar to the one of the wheels (19) and although the skates cannot roll like the wheels, however they rotate to allow a bulge or sleeve (protuberance) (38) in the hose pass through the substructure. If we would not place these “skates” (15) and to prevent a bulge (38) in the hose blocking the wheel (19), then we would have to increase the diameter of the wheel. This is not possible in our case because when these wheels move away from the substructure's center due to a wider part of the hose, their large diameter would cause the wheels to hit the interior of the Pod (3) resulting in a non-viable implementation of the system. This does not occur with the skates (15) as illustrated on the right-side image of FIG. 15. The left side of the same figure shows how the skate overcomes the obstacle of the coupling sleeve (38) and how, if not placing the skates (15), the coupling sleeve (38) that has a height when hitting against the wheel close to its radius, would cause the wheel to block and probably damage one of the elements of the system. FIG. 15, to the right, shows the two extreme positions the skates will be in. The first position corresponds to the passing of the hose and the second to passing of the coupling sleeve (38).

[0157] The skates (15, 17) must be made of a smooth and polished material, that may not get stuck to the coupling sleeve (38). Teflon could be useful as it is auto lubricant or other similar material that is suitable for the required temperature ranges.

[0158] Obviously, each skate (15) has its own axle (20) as well as its corresponding wheel and it features hitches (21) for each of the springs (8) (FIGS. 7 and 14).

[0159] For this primary guidance-substructure (13) to move horizontally and vertically (FIGS. 6, 9 and 14), our system's structure has been provided with both horizontal (7) and vertical (14) bars, that combined with low-friction cylinders (6) (11) placed on the guidance-substructure, will allow the substructure to move in those two directions H and V with minimum effort from the hose.

[0160] Thanks to this primary guidance-substructure (13) the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) movements are compensated and when placing the ring (18) of cameras (22) and lights (23), attached to this substructure, those movements would no longer affect them (in terms of maintaining their fixed relative position in relation to the hose), as the guidance will make the substructure follow the movements of the hose.

[0161] But in order to obtain an even better image quality, the movement of the drogue (4) has been considered as it changes the hose's direction when rolling off the drum (2), as well as the changing diameter of the retracting hose due to its increased number of turns on the drum (2). To compensate for the two changes/alterations (P) and (R) these movements generate, (see FIG. 9) a secondary guidance-substructure (16) has been implemented, also with wheels (19) very similar to the primary guidance-substructure (13), and the secondary will also follow the hose (1), but as it is suspended to the primary guidance-substructure (13) (that we have referred to as fixed) it will have substructures joining-rods to join them, in the same direction as the hose (1) compensating/offsetting those deviations as intended. The ring (18) with the cameras (22) and lights (23) will be attached to the joining-rod (9) between the two substructures in this most complete implementation of this invention.

[0162] As mentioned, to join the primary guidance-substructure (13) and the secondary guidance-substructure (16) and to allow for the secondary guidance-substructure (16) to move in respect to the primary guidance-substructure (13), some fixing elements have been introduced. In this configuration there are four of them and we call them substructures joining-rod. They are composed of an extensible element such as a spring (37) attaching each one of them to a ball joint (36) fixed to both substructures (see FIG. 13).

[0163] This way the pitch and yaw movements of the hose are compensated with the suspended guidance-substructure (16) and at all times, the cameras (22) and lights (23) will move synchronously to the hose (1) itself also compensating those movements.

[0164] Thus, we have two potential implementations of this invention, the first implementation with only the primary guidance-substructure (13) or fixed guidance-substructure. The second implementation, adding the secondary guidance-substructure (16) or suspended guidance-substructure (13), more complete than the primary contemplating the compensation of these additional two movements (P and R) of the hose.

[0165] We must also consider the hose's own movement along its longitudinal axis (FIG. 4) (L). To compensate this movement, what the system does is with each camera take frames at a very high frame rate, so that during the time frame this is produced, the movement of the hose is negligible. We are talking about a few microseconds. To capture quality imagery during that short time frame, we need high intensity lights (23) which our system comprises of.

[0166] In addition, the system (see FIG. 12) comprises a control unit (24), in our case made up of a microcontroller (MCU) and peripheral components, programmed to send a power-up command through a control bus (34) to the lights (23) and cameras (22) so that imagery of the hose (1) will be acquired along its full length and depending on the speed of its retraction (or extension). The control unit (24) is powered through a power-adapter or -converter (26) from the aircraft (35), with this control unit (24) connected to the adapter or converter (26) through a primary connection (27), while the cameras (22) and lights (23) receive power supply from the control unit (24) through a secondary connection (28). The control unit (24) will also have a memory that will store the information of the acquired frames and will send them promptly to the download point (25) through a high-speed bus (29).

[0167] The hose (1) is photographed by the cameras (22) to obtain the frames (31) (FIG. 5), that with the adequate all-around guard zones allow to compose them for each instant of time and generate a ring (32). These rings have as many frames as there are cameras. On every frame the redundancies of the guard zones are eliminated, and they are combined with the adjacent frames to form a complete image of the hose (1) perimeter for any given time segment. In the configuration as shown (FIG. 6, 14), there are four cameras and frames. They are sampled at sufficient frame rate to allow for some buffer zones on the longitudinal axis between them. These buffer zones, again, are nothing more than the repetition of part of the hose image at the end of one ring and the beginning of the next and allowing to ensure the continuity of the photo. To create the composition of all the rings of the hose, these new guard zones are eliminated, and the “photo” is generated with a very high-quality level thanks to the system's architecture.

[0168] To obtain the photo, additionally it is important (see FIG. 5) to consider that the hose surface is painted on, with rings and longitudinal lines (30) and so various colors like white (31) or black (33) or red. In order to prevent these very different colors, due to the reflection of light received from the illumination, to overexpose or underexpose the frames, it is important to determine the adequate level of illumination, that thanks to this design will remain constant throughout the operation. In addition, reflections have to be avoided to achieve the micro-shadows effect as previously explained.

[0169] In our preferred implementation, the lights will be arranged in a hybrid way to the ones mentioned above (In the DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION section). That is because the closer we get to the first method, the more the lights can be elevated and the better the obtained angle will be, always more than to 45°. We can move the lights a little away from the cameras on the hose's axis, so that this will allow us to elevate them a bit and more easily meet the required angle above 45°. We can see the preferred arrangement of cameras and lights on FIG. 11. Although this view doesn't reflect that mentioned displacement, it shows how the hose surface which needs to be framed is illuminated for the top camera by four lights from opposing sides and angles. The rays of light form an angle above 45° with any orthogonal to the hose surface for the whole area which that light intends to illuminate. It is also important for the lights not to interfere with each other, as this could eliminate the micro-shadows effect. In our case, each camera acquires an angular surface of the hose surface of approximately a 100° of which 10° correspond to the guard zones. 5° on every side for the frame intersections with adjacent cameras. Removing these guard zones, leaves 90° that the lights illuminate as follows, from right to left: The first 90′/4 are illuminated by the first light or set of lights 23-1. These first lights 23-1 are placed to the left of the camera 22 itself, in a frontal view. The second quarter is illuminated by second lights 23-2. The third as well as the last quarter, that represent the range from 45° to 90° of the total, are illuminated in a similar and symmetrical way as the first half of the total range. The figure shows third lights 23-3 and fourth lights 23-4 that perform this task. With these four groups of lights we achieve the illumination for the complete area corresponding to camera 22 of FIG. 11, with as many groups of cameras (22) and associated lights in order to capture the full circumference of the hose surface. If in addition, we move the ring of lights with respect to the cameras along the longitudinal hose axis, we will obtain a better result in illumination and creation of the micro-shadows as desired.

[0170] None of the lights located for the illumination of the figure's camera (22), interfere geometrically with the light needed for an adjacent camera. This way, when repeating the image shown on FIG. 11 for each of the three remaining cameras (by rotating the cameras and light position 90°, three times), we would have the complete set of lights and cameras needed to take the image of a ring of the hose. The result of this is shown on the same FIG. 11, below to the right.

[0171] In short, to meet all the previous objectives, the basics of this invention can be found in the suggested geometric arrangement, that having to be compatible with the current geometry of the Pods, must allow an adequate tracking of the hose and an illumination and imagery acquisition that meets all the above mentioned. This can be achieved with the provided solution and implementation.

[0172] The fact of being able to carry out the inspection during the hose retraction in-flight, constitutes a relevant novelty that has a number of advantages such as saving time, being able to prevent damage to the hose when dragging it over the ground during extending and retracting it on the ground, avoiding human error, etc. But perhaps, the most important advantage is again the capability to detect damage on the hose. The hose's hydraulic fuel control consists of at least two valves, one at the beginning and one at the end of the hose. When maintaining the one at the end where the drogue is located closed, due to not having any connection to a receiver aircraft, and we open the valve at the beginning, the fuel pressure inside the hose increases and if any leakage exists it could be seen on one of the captured images, during the analyzing procedure of the “photo”. All this without affecting the damage detection as previously stated.

[0173] On the ground this part of the procedure is impossible for safety reasons. Therefore, it might be interesting to have a real time view of the cameras (22) in the cabin to detect any leakage of the hose.

[0174] FIG. 14 shows us a cross-section of the hose's (1) longitudinal axis displaying the elements that are part of the guidance-substructure, such as the toroidal volume (18) with the cameras (22) and lights (23) and the springs (8) in charge of fitting to the wheels (19) and the fixed substructure hose-guidance skates (15). FIG. 15 displays how those skates and wheels (19) can separate in case of any irregularities around the hose, as is the case with the coupling sleeve (38) that encloses the hose (1) significantly increasing its exterior diameter.

[0175] FIG. 15 to the left shows an elevation view of a longitudinal section of the hose (1), displaying the wheels (19) and the skates together with the coupling sleeve (38) or bulging part of the hose. As seen, the wheel itself would never be able to overcome the coupling sleeve (38), as its radius is equal to the height of the coupling sleeve (38) which thus represents an obstacle. However, thanks to the skate the coupling sleeve (38) passes without problem, effortless. The skate serves as a wheel with a larger diameter without needing the space in height that an actual wheel of those dimensions would need.

Inspection Procedure

[0176] The image capturing and inspection procedures, of the cameras and lights positioning system for inspection of a hose with inclination and moving transversally, vertically and horizontally, in pitch and yaw and longitudinally as previously described, that compensates those movements in order to obtain a very high quality photo, comprises the steps as described below:

[0177] In case of this preferred implementation, where we have four illumination areas, one for each camera, we can group them in two sets: A primary set formed by the upper and lower cameras.

[0178] And another set that corresponds to the left and right cameras.

[0179] Thus, we divide each sample of the hose surface in two phases, one for each established set. The first camera (22) of the primary set, the upper one, covers an angle of 100° of the hose surface with respect to its center, being illuminated by four groups of lights (23-1, 2, 3, and 4) as shown on FIG. 11. To complete the set, this part of the ring is added to or combined with the other part of the ring that corresponds to the lower camera (22) of another 100°, that would be illuminated by other four groups of symmetric lights corresponding to the upper cameras. Both illuminated areas have no part in common on the hose surface and they can be illuminated simultaneously without interfering each other. This is how we form the primary set by grouping these illumination areas of the upper and lower camera. Likewise, we form the secondary set of lights corresponding to the left and right cameras.

[0180] The procedure is as follows. [0181] Complete in-flight extension of the hose. [0182] Start of the in-flight retraction of the hose. [0183] At the same time the retraction of the hose starts, we switch-on the lights of the primary set synchronized with the image capturing by each camera of the set. This image capturing process will be repeated for every set. [0184] We will repeat the previous step for each section of the hose, or hose ring with a frequency rate of fps. [0185] When the hose retraction is completed, the controller will indicate this and will switch-off the lights as well as terminate image capturing by the cameras. [0186] The system stops, waiting for the command to download the data from the memory for its afterwards processing and composing of the “photo”.

NAMES OF THE ELEMENTS IN THE FIGURES

[0187] 1. Hose [0188] 2. Drum [0189] 3. Pod [0190] 4. Drogue [0191] 5. Pre-set inclination arm [0192] 6. Horizontal bar slide-cylinder [0193] 7. Horizontal slide-bar [0194] 8. Skate spring [0195] 9. Substructures joining-rod [0196] 10. Structure for support and fixation to the Pod [0197] 11. Vertical slide-cylinder [0198] 12. Lugs to attach the system to the pod [0199] 13. Guidance-substructure attached to the (main) structure [0200] 14. Vertical slide-bar [0201] 15. Fixed (to the support and fixation structure, reference 10) substructure hose-guidance skate [0202] 16. Suspended guidance-substructure [0203] 17. Suspended substructure hose-guidance skate [0204] 18. Box or toroid volume with cameras and lights [0205] 19. Skate-wheel [0206] 20. Skate-wheel axle [0207] 21. Spring hitch [0208] 22. Camera [0209] 23. Light [0210] 24. Control unit [0211] 25. Aircraft system-operation system [0212] 26. Power supply [0213] 27. Control unit power supply line [0214] 28. Cameras and lights power supply line [0215] 29. Communications-bus with the aircraft [0216] 30. Longitudinal strip of the hose [0217] 31. Camera image [0218] 32. Imagery ring [0219] 33. Hose color zone [0220] 34. Cameras and lights control line [0221] 35. Power supply from the aircraft [0222] 36. Ball joint [0223] 37. Rod-spring [0224] 38. Coupling sleeve or protuberance (an increased diameter of the hose)

[0225] The fundamentals of this invention have been sufficiently described, as well as how to implement it, but it should be noted that in essence it could be implemented in other ways that differ in detail from the given examples, while still achieving the same level of assurance, as long as the basic principle is not altered, changed or modified.