0000000000784826
AUTHOR
P. I. Nicholson
Robotic non-destructive inspection
Automation of non-destructive testing (NDT) of engineering components and structures represents one of the strategic objectives of many industries. It enables increases in accuracy, precision and speed of inspection while reducing production time and associated labour costs in contrast to manual inspection. The use of robots can provide additional flexibility and autonomy to automated NDT. Automated robotic inspection can be beneficial in diverse industrial scenarios ranging from integration of NDT into the manufacturing process of components with very complex geometry, such as gears, to periodical in-service overhaul of large structures (for instance, in petrochemical and aerospace industr…
Robotic path planning for non-destructive testing through RoboNDT
The requirement to increase inspection speeds for non-destructive testing (NDT) is common to many manufacturers. The prevalence of complex curved surfaces in modern products provides motivation for the use of 6 axis robots in these inspections. The techniques and issues associated with conventional manual inspection techniques and automated systems for the inspection of large complex surfaces were reviewed. This paper presents a new MATLAB based software solution (RoboNDT), aiming to fulfil the requirements of robotized NDT inspection. RoboNDT enables flexible trajectory path planning to be accomplished for the inspection of complex curved surfaces. This newly developed software is capable …