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There's a section in the article relating the procedure of spraying the pressurized engine with a liquid to check for bubbles. The bubbles indicate leaks. Human

by lolc 4y ago

There's a section in the article relating the procedure of spraying the pressurized engine with a liquid to check for bubbles. The bubbles indicate leaks. Humans go close to the engine to check for leaks. They can point and call all they want, it is inherently unsafe for them to be there. It is unclear to me how that procedure could be replaced and I won't dismiss it as cowboy attitude.

Jtsummers 4y ago
It's SpaceX, sister company of Tesla. They can have a small bot that goes around spraying and many cameras and other sensors observing. And given they're looking for potentially very small leaks from a pressurized system you wouldn't want a person physically present when the leak is discovered at high pressure anyways, not unless you want to see the effect of a very narrow high pressure stream hitting human skin (or a fast moving piece of hardware hitting their skull).
- lolc 4y ago
  I'm sure if the tech were up to the task, they'd have a robot you could walk around with and look at things. But it'd need really good resolution and dynamic range paired with flexible and fine motor control to lean into an engine and look for tiny bubbles. This is a research field of its own. Not something they just have. For example: Humans improve their visual perception by lightly shifting their heads to avoid reflections, gauge shadows and mitigate obstructions. If the tech can't follow, you have an inferior solution. A solution where bubbles will be missed. Just staring at a screen is not the same. Even if you can tilt the camera.
andrewaylett 4y ago
The bubble test is not carried out at full pressure. That's the point: you find the leaks before blowing the engine up because you didn't spot a leak. The tag-out system could, for example, use a pressure relief valve. I suspect they even have one already when running the test, but if someone was in the wrong space when the relief valve wasn't in place then I assume they're not using it as a tag point.

by lolc 4y ago

Jtsummers 4y ago

It's SpaceX, sister company of Tesla. They can have a small bot that goes around spraying and many cameras and other sensors observing. And given they're looking for potentially very small leaks from a pressurized system you wouldn't want a person physically present when the leak is discovered at high pressure anyways, not unless you want to see the effect of a very narrow high pressure stream hitting human skin (or a fast moving piece of hardware hitting their skull).

lolc 4y ago
I'm sure if the tech were up to the task, they'd have a robot you could walk around with and look at things. But it'd need really good resolution and dynamic range paired with flexible and fine motor control to lean into an engine and look for tiny bubbles. This is a research field of its own. Not something they just have. For example: Humans improve their visual perception by lightly shifting their heads to avoid reflections, gauge shadows and mitigate obstructions. If the tech can't follow, you have an inferior solution. A solution where bubbles will be missed. Just staring at a screen is not the same. Even if you can tilt the camera.

andrewaylett 4y ago

The bubble test is not carried out at full pressure. That's the point: you find the leaks before blowing the engine up because you didn't spot a leak. The tag-out system could, for example, use a pressure relief valve. I suspect they even have one already when running the test, but if someone was in the wrong space when the relief valve wasn't in place then I assume they're not using it as a tag point.