Considerations for automated NDE applications

• Main Author: MacLeod, Charles Norman
• Published: University of Strathclyde 2014
• Subjects: 621.3
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.635518

To ensure that infrastructure owners, operators and planners have sufficient information readily available to them regarding the state and condition of their asset, numerous advances and developments have been demonstrated in the field of Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE). The process of detailed imaging and examination of structures and components in a sensitive, safe and inherently non-intrusive manner has numerous advantages in operational, financial and safety terms. Only by delivering NDE sensors directly to all points of interest on a structure, can the desired coverage of the structure or component be undertaken. This vision has driven research and developments in the area of automated collection of NDE data. This thesis identifies and addresses key challenges and technical boundaries currently preventing wider industrial uptake of automated NDE. This has been accomplished through novel research and developments in key areas related to platform kinematics and dynamics, localisation and registration to the structure under inspection, path planning and physical NDE sensing. These advances provide a unified framework to both establish and progress remote automated NDE forward for future commercial deployment. A contribution to knowledge was presented on the positional performance characteristics of a custom rotary wing aerial inspection platform after a series of hover tests within a tracking volume. An additional contribution was presented on the results of a comprehensive evaluation of a laser based positioning sensor operating under a wide range of engineering materials, along with the development of a novel distance correction algorithm. A new custom approach for robotic NDE path planning was researched and developed based on conventional CAD/CAM machining, while utilising a novel custom agile ultrasonic thickness mapping crawler to highlight proof of principle. Both of these approaches provide an additional contribution to knowledge, both individually in their respective fields and also together in highlighting the unique advantages of their combined approach. Finally a new NDE sensor concept based on the vibrissae of rodents such as rats and mice, for both surface roughness and surface profiling measurement, was adapted and investigated for NDE sensing applications. The results document a contribution to knowledge in the area with discrimination down to 14 micrometre Roughness Average presented.