Integrating Ultrasonic Inspection Process into UMA: A Robotic Climbing Platform for Structural Maintenance Application

This paper presents the integration of the ultrasonic testing (UT) process into a climbing platform for nondestructive evaluation of structural components. The work points out the technical challenges concerning the automation of UT process by mobile climbing robots and described the architecture of developed UMA platform. The work addresses the experimental characterization of UT technology identifying key inspection parameters affecting signals quality and reliability. The UT tool has been mechanically and electronically embedded into UMA robot and inspection policies have been designed supporting autonomous signal acquisition, interpretation, and inspection tasks adaptation. The metrics used to interpret A-scan signals and to reconstruct B-scan and C-scan images for internal flaw detection are presented. Finally, experimental tests on metal samples with artificial defects validate the developed robot and the proposed automated inspection methods.