Robotized inspection system of the external aircraft fuselage based on ultrasound

This paper describes an automated system that inspects the external surface of an aircraft section. To test the system developed, a part similar to airplane section 19 has been used. The inspection system is based on a robot carrying a headset made up of ultrasound sensors. Data are processed by an ultrasound processing program which maps the mechanical features of the inspected surface. The main requirement of the inspection is to perform the proper contact between the ultrasound sensors and the inspected surface. In order to guarantee suitable contact between them, a robot trajectory correction system running in real time has been applied. It is based on the measures given by four optical sensors located on the sides of the ultrasound headset. The integration and synchronization of the devices mentioned above make it possible to obtain an adequate inspection system for the external aircraft fuselage. Furthermore, inspection time has been significantly reduced; at the same time a fully-automated system has been developed to inspect the whole aircraft section surface.