Session: 04 - 01 Emerging Techniques & Technology

Paper Number: 118755

118755 - A Feasibility Study on the Use of Ultrasonic Phased Array Data for Probe Positioning 

For the non-destructive evaluation of welds in large structures, the implementation of robotic crawlers can offer support to the personnel involved. When considering the example of inspecting maritime vessels during manufacture, areas of interest are often vast in scale, require a large time investment, and are predominantly not at ground level, requiring substantial aid to allow access. The use of robotic solutions here can extend the reach of an inspector and eliminate the need for scaffolding or overhead gantry, improving the health and safety of employees, and reducing the associated inspection time.

However, off-the-shelf solutions are often manually controlled, which makes them prone to alignment error and regularly require manual intervention. Laser seam trackers are available to assist in automated tracking of a weld cap, but they are limited to this usage case and cannot operate on dressed welds where the cap is removed. Another limitation lies in the inspection of complex weld geometry (variable thickness, angled protrusions etc), which often requires a lot of manual setup of fixed frame components.

In steps taken to improve the current remote assessment of welds, the proposed solution aims to implement the use of live ultrasonic phased array data that is already available to an inspector as a source of recording weld position, just as a human operator would use the visual data within a sectorial scan to position the probe for full-coverage. Through image processing techniques, it is possible to highlight weld material from a given scan and provide an estimation of the probe-to-weld center separation, providing live feedback to localize the probe to a point of maximum weld coverage.

A feasibility study conducted showed an estimation accuracy of 0.8 mm, which is within the criteria defined by on-site procedures. By applying this method in conjunction with a lightweight robotic actuator, a remote system with heightened situational awareness and increased flexibility is created, with the ability to be applied across a greater number of inspection situations.

Presenting Author: Adam Gilmour University of Strathclyde

Presenting Author Biography: Adam Gilmour received the M.Eng. degree in aero-mechanical engineering from the University of Strathclyde in 2020. He joined the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE) within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering to pursue an Eng.D. in Non-Destructive Evaluation. His work focuses on robotic inspection within industrial environments and has primary interests in ultrasonics, phased array inspection, and automation.