Global GE Fuse No Hands: Alternative Inputs for Industrial Inspection Challenge

We need your input! In this ideation challenge, we are exploring the possibilities for audio and/or visual inputs for a portal ultrasound device.

This handheld ultrasound inspection platform (Mentor) is used alongside many non-destructive testing (“NDT”) instruments. These NDT instruments are used to evaluate the properties of material, component or system without causing damage—regularly utilized in industries where a failure of a component would cause significant hazard or economic loss, such as in transportation, pressure vessels, building structures, piping, and hoisting equipment.

These types of portable inspection devices are critical to field service operators as oftentimes—getting to the right location or area to complete the inspection can be grueling. Pipes may be suspended from great heights or buried underground—and may also be very hot (temperatures can be as high as 400 degrees Celsius).

These rough environments compel high safety requirements for field services operators: requiring s/he to wear protective clothing, suspension harness, gloves, glasses and more. While this protective equipment is incredibly important—the operator still needs to be able to do the assessment.

The current handheld ultrasound device allows an operator to complete the inspection and provide inputs through touch screens, as well as regular buttons and knobs. Yet, touch screens can be problematic to use when wearing gloves, just as buttons or knobs may be difficult to control when suspended from scaffoldings.

This challenge seeks to identify approaches to enable alternative inputs, such as audio or visual, for a portable ultrasound device that are suitable for industrial environments.

Subject to Official Rules . Contest opens on 9am EST on September 10, 2018. Must submit at least one Entry by 11:59pm EST November 2, 2018 to be eligible. Employees and contractors of GE and any of its respective parents, affiliates or subsidiaries are ineligible. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

About Your Entry:

This challenge invites Fuse community members, creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, tinkerers and the world to identify approaches to enable alternative inputs, such as audio or visual, for a portable ultrasound device that are suitable for industrial environments.

Entry Guidelines:

When developing your Entry, solutions need not be limited to the current state and capacity (hardware/software) of the device. Innovative approaches that would require hardware or software advances to fully implement will absolutely be considered, but realistic enough that they could be prototyped and brought to life today or within the next year. As such, ideas are more than welcome to repurpose a solution from another domain, such as gaming or outdoor sports, and apply it to a non-destructive testing scenario. Solutions may also be hardware and/or software.

Entry Requirements:

A successful technology or solution must (but should not disclose confidential information):

Permit binary, numerical and drop down-based inputs to the ultrasound device. At a minimum, the solution must permit the following inputs (these gestures command the key functionality of the ultrasound device):
- Gain Control: Up/ Down (a measure of the strength of the ultrasound signal);
- Scan: Start/ Stop/ Pause (the ultrasound collects a record of what it views);
- Data: Save/ Send (the recording from the scan); and,
- File Name/Number: Entry.
Permit the access of menus and corresponding selection of menu items;
Be durable in harsh, industrial environments, including:
- Being operable in noise levels of at least 50 dB;
- Being operable in temperatures of at least -20 to 55 Celsius; and,
- If it involves hardware, must be integrate-able in a chassis of size 11.5” x 9” x 2.5” and must draw less than 250mW of power.

Entry Deliverables:

Your Entry must be in English, in PDF report format, no more than 10 pages, and provide an introduction and high-level overview of your idea or technology (but should not disclose confidential information), including:

A short executive summary (3-5 sentences) of your proposed solution;
A detailed summary of your proposed solution that includes the following:
- A detailed description of how the proposed (theoretical) solution or (actual) prototype (whether hardware, software, etc.) can function with the handheld ultrasound device;
- A rationale (whether via estimation or analysis) of how the proposed solution will be operable in and allow a field service operator to effectively and safely complete an inspection in a rough environment (such as suspended in the area, in high temperatures, etc.);
- A summary of the technologies being utilized in your solution (such as reusing a solution from another domain), including a list of references about those technologies (such as websites and open source or publicly available documents).
Optional: Any supporting documents, such as drawings or designs, which show how your solution would operate (e.g. illustrations, performance data, etc.).
A brief description of your experience, background and capabilities (and your Team’s) including relevant past projects and experiences, and the name of each team member.

About The Challenge:

By submitting an Entry, you agree to be bound by GE Fuse’s Official Rules , which include but are not limited to the following requirements:

Opportunity:

Up to 5 winning Entries will be awarded cash prizes of $7,000, $5,000, $2,000 USD and two $500 USD respectively from a total prize pool of ($15,000).
Should a team be awarded as winner, the cash prizes will be provided to the Team Leader for distribution amongst the Team members.

Confidentiality:

Entrants confirm that their Entry does not contain any confidential information, and that no confidential relationship or obligation of secrecy is to be established between the Entrant and Sponsor.

Selection and Review Process:

The judging and award determination will be made by an internal BHGE team. All qualifying applications will be evaluated by a panel of at least two (2) judges comprised of BHGE employees with expertise in ultrasound technology, software, and non-destructive testing (the “Judges Panel”).

Entries will be evaluated based on compliance with the Entry Requirements, as well as the following criteria (collectively the “Judging Criteria”):

[Potential] ability to be operable effectively allow field service operator to input gestures (as described above) in tough environments;
[Potential] ease of use for field service operator;
Technical feasibility (including durability); and,
Ability to commercialize (with ability to prototype within twelve months).

Respondents acknowledge that Competition Sponsors reserve the sole and absolute right and discretion to award prizes as stated in the Challenge, including awarding prizes to fewer than five (5) respondents.

Timeline:

Challenge Launch: Challenge opens to all eligible participants on September 10, 2018 at 9AM EST.
Challenge Close: Challenge closes and all Entries must be submitted by November 2, 2018 at 11:59PM EST.
Winner Announcement: Winners will be announced on or about early December 2018

Additional Information:

About the Mentor Platform:

While your solution does not need to be limited by the current state and capacity of the Mentor platform (software) and ultrasound device (hardware), the below links provide some background of the “Mentor UT” (an ultrasound phased array flaw detector):

Product Overview: https://www.gemeasurement.com/inspection-ndt/ultrasound-portables/mentor-ut-corrosion-ultrasonic-flaw-detector
Application Overview (downloadable file): https://www.gemeasurement.com/sites/gemc.dev/files/gea33386_corrosion_mapping_with_two-axis_scanner_r7.pdf

Mentor in Action:

Additional videos about how the device is currently being used can be found here:

Please apply using the form given below.

Please mail detailed solution (2-3 pages) in pdf format to [email protected] Kindly mention your name, contact number and email id in the pdf document at the top.