Range finder based guidance of PUMA robot for the infrared inspection of non-planar materials

Abstract

NDT (non-destructive testing) using active infrared thermography has found numerous applications in the industry. Growing interest in the field has prompted researchers to develop inspection systems that are more and more versatile. The thermographic NDT of non-planar surfaces represents a new challenge since thermographic NDT systems must adapt to the geometry of the object to be inspected. The system developed here uses a PUMA 560 Mark II robot, onto which a JUPITER 3D sensor and a thermographic NDT unit are mounted.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>