METHOD OF IN-PROCESS DETECTION AND MAPPING OF DEFECTS IN A COMPOSITE LAYUP

A method of detecting defects 508 in a composite layup includes capturing, using an infrared camera 406, reference images 500 of a reference layup 470 being laid up by a reference layup head 404. The method also includes manually reviewing the reference images 500 for defects 508, and generating reference defect masks 504 indicating defects 508 in the reference images 500. The method further includes training, using the reference images 500 and reference defect masks 504, a neural network 600, creating a machine learning model 602 that, given a production image 566 as input, outputs a production defect mask 568 indicating the defect location 510 and the defect type 516 of each defect 508. The method also includes capturing, using an infrared camera 406, production images 566 of a production layup being laid up 560 by the production layup head 562, and applying the model 602 to the production images 566 to automatically generate a production defect masks 568 indicating each defect 508 in the production images 566.