Various surface and structural defects are currently inspected visually. This method is labor intensive, requiring large maintenance man hours, and is prone to errors. To streamline this process, herein is described an automated inspection system and apparatus based on several optical technologies that drastically reduces inspection time, provides accurate detection of defects, and provides a digital map of the location of defects. The technology uses multiple sensing/imaging modalities such as ring illumination angular scanning, coherent speckle scanning, multi-spectral imaging such as ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) spectrums, and polarization detection.