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About

Rahul Summan is a leading researcher specializing in robotic non-destructive testing (NDT), ultrasonic inspection, and large-scale metrology for aerospace and industrial applications. His work sits at the intersection of robotics, sensing, and automated inspection, addressing critical challenges in assessing the structural integrity of complex engineering components. Summan's most influential contribution — his 2013 paper on time-of-flight airborne ultrasonic ranging (103 citations) — established foundational techniques for positional measurement in environments where optical or electromagnetic methods fall short. His subsequent research advanced robotic automation in NDT significantly, developing off-line scan path planning for complex geometries (60 citations), integrating phased array ultrasonics with high-speed robotic systems, and pioneering machining-based coverage path planning algorithms for large-area structural inspection. His 2015 work on spatial calibration of photogrammetry-based metrology systems (49 citations) further strengthened the precision underpinning robotic inspection workflows. Across his body of work, Summan has consistently demonstrated how robotics, ultrasonics, and metrology can be flexibly combined to make industrial inspection safer, faster, and more accessible — including in confined or hazardous environments. With over 430 cumulative citations, his research has had meaningful impact on the aerospace NDT community and continues to inform the development of next-generation automated inspection systems.