OPENTECHNICAL PUBLICATION
OT-2026-000000436

System and method for measuring a bulb diameter of an installed one-sided fastener in a structure

Published: 2026-09-15T19:02:52.930011Z
Permanent URL: https://opentechnical.org/p/OT-2026-000000436
Categories: Sensors, Controls & Machine Vision > Position and Presence Sensing

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABSTRACT

There is provided a computer-implemented system for measuring a bulb diameter
of an installed one-sided fastener in a structure. The system includes the
structure and the installed one-sided fastener installed in the structure. The
installed one-sided fastener has a fastener bulb with the bulb diameter. The
system includes an optical imaging system. The system includes image data,
including a first image of the fastener bulb, and a second image of the
fastener bulb. The system includes a post image processing system, to process
the image data, and to determine a bulb diameter measurement of the bulb
diameter. The post image processing system includes a control system with a
computer system, a trained artificial intelligence model trained to identify
the installed one-sided fastener and to define edges of the installed
one-sided fastener, and one or more of, an edge detection process, an ellipse
fitting process, and a stereo vision process.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

OpenTechnical publication OT-2026-000000436
Published 2026-09-15T19:02:52.930011Z
https://opentechnical.org/p/OT-2026-000000436