Optical Ground Vibration Test System

An acquisition system that will greatly reduce the time to perform ground vibration tests (GVT) on military aircraft is proposed. The system will automate GVTs, enabling rapid acquisition without requiring setup of nearly all sensors and cabling. Segments of the wireframe geometry and acquisition setup will also be generated automatically. Aircraft down times will be reduced dramatically. The system will utilize one or more robotic carts with gimbal-mounted laser vibrometers, wireless accelerometers for degrees of freedom that are not line of sight, and potentially mobile shaker carts. A soft suspension system is also proposed for applications requiring low-frequency isolation. Custom software will drive robotic assemblies and port data from sensors to modal acquisition and/or reduction software.