A Method and Device for Health Monitoring of Glass Armor

A method and device for health monitoring of glass armor plates is described. Because the armor plates are enclosed in a steel box for protection, visual inspection can't be used. Traditional inspection requires dismounting the armor from the vehicle, and then using a high energy X-ray machine. Removing the armor from the vehicle is very time consuming and labor intensive, and the X-ray machine is expensive and often not available in the war theater. Our solution to the health monitoring problem is to embed the inspection device inside the steel enclosure. The inspection device uses LED's to transmit light through the glass and photo transistors to measure the amount of light received. A relatively simple algorithm is used to compare the current amount of light received with that when the cube was healthy. The system is very easy to use, is not labor intensive, and gives a status report in a matter of seconds.