Ai-enhanced X-ray Imaging System Using Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Cold Cathode For Conveyor-based Industrial Inspection

The demand for energy-efficient and high-throughput imaging systems in Industry 4.0 has spurred interest in advanced X-ray generation technologies. This article presents an AI-enhanced X-ray imaging system that employs a vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) cold cathode as the electron source for a conveyor-based industrial inspection platform. The VACNT emitter, composed of a dense and uniform nanotube array, enables rapid switching, high current density, and long-term stability under pulsed operation, ensuring consistent low-dose X-ray generation. The system integrates four primary modules: the X-ray generation system (XGS) for pulsed X-ray emission, the conveyor controlling system (CCS) for synchronized motion and precise sample positioning, the image detection & process system image detection and processing system (IDPS) for advanced image analysis, and the AI control module (AICM) for adaptive optimization and intelligent fault detection. The AICM coordinates all subsystems, with remote monitoring and control available via a smartphone or PC interface. AI-assisted enhancement, deblurring, and defect detection modules are integrated to improve pulsed low-dose X-ray images and support short-circuit identification. The contribution of this work lies in the system-level integration and X-ray-domain adaptation of established computer-vision models to grayscale, low-dose, pulsed VACNT X-ray images acquired under conveyor-based inspection conditions.