The application of Hough transform on ultrasonic images for the detection and characterization of defects in non-destructive inspection

Ultrasonic non-destructive inspection is today widely employed in industry for detecting embedded or surface defects in engineering structures. However, the processing of data from ultrasonic inspection is rarely automated. The objective of our study is to develop a data processing system which makes use of image processing techniques in order to assist the ultrasonic inspection operator in his difficult task. The research work described has thus been done with this objective in mind and it concerns a method that we have developed for the automatic detection and characterization of defects. This method is based on the Hough transform and it allows one to localize defects in the component under inspection. By an automatic analysis of the "ultrasonic" data. The defects that are considered are tiny cracks in thick metallic structures.