An Imaging-Constrained Path Planning Pipeline for Fine Robotic Visual Inspection of Rotary Parts

Abstract

Visual surface inspection is a critical qualityassurance step for high-value aerospace hardware, yet the detection of barely perceptible defects (for example, subtle marks remaining after shot-peening) is still largely performed manually. A key reason is that defect contrast is highly dependent on illumination and viewing directions: the same flaw may be invisible under most angles and only emerge under a narrow range of light incidence. This paper presents an inspection-planning pipeline designed to automate such anglesensitive inspections on rotary landing-gear components. The method first generates camera viewpoints that intentionally favor geometries known to enhance the visibility of lowcontrast surface anomalies, then converts these viewpoints into a feasible robotic inspection trajectory. Planning is performed for a 7-DOF inspection cell composed of a 6-DOF serial robot coupled with a 1-DOF external rotational axis, allowing the system to exploit part reorientation while maintaining kinematic feasibility and practical reachability constraints. By integrating visibility-driven viewpoint generation with robotplus-positioner path planning, the proposed approach provides a complete, application-oriented solution toward reliable and repeatable inspection of lightly textured aerospace surfaces.