Evaluation of Coded Excitations for Autonomous Airborne Ultrasonic Inspection

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are receiving increasing attention for use in Non-Destructive Testing due to their ability to access areas where manual inspection is not practical. Contact-based UAV ultrasonic inspections grant the opportunity to remotely monitor the structural health of an industrial asset with enhanced internal integrity information. Ultrasonic inspection is a Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) method conventionally used in corrosion mapping. Surface contacting ultrasonic transducers provide enhanced structural integrity information. However, due to near-surface aerodynamic effects, angular sensitivity of the ultrasound probe and alignment error during autonomous inspections, …