Technical overview

CleverScan is an intelligent manhole scanning system. The camera head hosts a processor with a fully loaded operating system that can analyze and preprocess a massive volume of high quality image and sensor data. CleverScan is the result of several years of joint research & development of two companies: The company KEPSO (owned by Peter Kessler) develops the hardware and electronic components whereas the company CDLab Ltd. – the producer of the pipe inspection software WinCan - is responsible for the development of the CleverScan control software.

The CleverScan system provides the user for a very interesting price the best trade-off between high mobility and simplicity on the one hand as well as speed and high image quality during the manhole inspection process on the other hand. Lots of manholes are located in areas where they cannot be accessed easily and directly from a TV truck with a complex camera equipment.

CleverScan is extremely mobile as it weighs only around 17.2 kg / 38 lbs and it is approximately 1.10 m / 3' 7" high and therefore can easily be put in a compact van and carried around by one person:

The camera system is fast and easy to handle as the software is perfectly integrated into the hardware: push a button and the camera automatically moves down from the cover to the bench/channel and back again. Afterwards the scan data are finalized within a few seconds before you're off to the next manhole. The image quality is one of the best on the market and can be obtained with a 5 HD camera system that creates a high resolution video, a 3D view of the manhole as well as an unfolded view of the manhole wall used for direct damage reporting.

Hardware

Portable manhole inspection system (weight app. 17.2 kg/38 lbs; height app.110 cm/3'7")
5 HD cameras (4 side & 1 front camera)
4 Laser sources for geometry measurement
Powered with a battery (lasting for approximately 1 working day in full inspection mode)
Built-in cable drum providing 10 m of cable length.
Adjustable tripod for quick setup on the manhole (diameter range up to 2 m)
Linux-based processing unit inside the camera head for flexible preprocessing of the raw data.
Automated inspection process with a minimum of user interaction (Duration app. 5 min).
Protection Class: camera head = IP67; control unit = IP54

Software

Full integration into the damage reporting with WinCan
Availability of all official manhole inspection standards world-wide
Full integration into ESRI GIS systems
3D-view of the manhole
HD Front Video
HD unfolded view of the manhole wall

Software Installation

The camera is delivered to the user in a ready-to-run state. The software installation package can be downloaded from the website www.cleverscan.com:

Right click on the icon CleverScanSetup_Launcher, hit the command Run as administrator and follow the steps given by the wizard in order to have the software properly installed:

Once the laptop software is installed, all the user needs to do is to connect laptop and camera via Ethernet (RJ45), turn on the camera, and launch the CleverScan software.

Software Update

Laptop

The CleverScan software checks for updates automatically and always suggests the user to update to the latest version as soon as available:

Camera

Each time the laptop is going to be connected to the CleverScan system, the camera checks whether there is a new version of the camera software available and suggests the user to update to the latest version.

Licensing

CleverScan is a registered trademark of KEPSO and CDLab Ltd.

Software parts

The CleverScan software has been designed and developed by CDLab, Switzerland and can be sub-divided into a camera part and a user interface part:

The camera software part is responsible for setting the scan parameters and controlling the cameras during the scan. It receives commands from the laptop and executes them.
The user interface itself supports two modes: scanning and displaying. During the scanning phase, the laptop software lets the user adjust the scan parameters, track the scan progress with live feed from the front lens and post-process the scan images. Afterwards the user may switch to the display mode to look at the results.

The commands and panels provided by the user interface are described in detail in the following chapter.

User Interface

When hitting the CleverScan desktop icon the software always starts running in the scanning mode.

Hit the button Display mode in the toolbar to switch from Scanning mode to Display mode:

Hit the button Scanning mode to switch back from Display mode to Scanning mode:

CleverScan user interface in scanning mode: use this mode to scan a manhole

CleverScan user interface in display mode: use this mode to view the manholes that have been scanned and to enter observations with a set of graphic tools:

Preparing a scan

Mind the following steps in order to get a proper scan result:

Make sure the battery of the equipment has been charged to its maximum.
Remove the manhole cover and place the camera tripod properly on the manhole ring.
Turn on the camera and turn the camera head in order the lateral laser points at the position of the main outlet.
Check whether the camera head is able to move upward and downward pushing the corresponding keys on the camera chassis.
Cover the tripod with the cone shaped hood that is a part of the equipment: this will prevent any disturbing light infall from the outside and thus is crucial for getting proper scan results.
Connect the camera to the laptop, using the Ethernet cable provided with the camera equipment.
Place the camera equipment, such as the Laser dot points to a solid surface on the manhole ground. The perpendicular Laser is unable to return a reliable manhole depth value in case it hits on a water surface.

Running a scan

1.) Run the CleverScan software in scanning mode and push the command button Connect in the toolbar (1). Click on Capture in the message box (2) to get connected to the camera device:

If the connection fails, hit the button Connect again. If the connection fails repeatedly proceed as follows:

Quit the software and switch off the camera
Wait a few seconds and switch on the camera
Run the software and hit the button Connect again

WinCan CleverScan English