Development of a Multi-Joint Robotic Ultrasonic Inspection System to Secure the Integrity of Composite Structures

摘要

Composite materials are lighter and better than existing metal materials in terms of corrosion and fatigue resistance, and have thus become popular as materials for structures that require lightening, such as automobiles and aircrafts. However, as these composite materials involve mechanical and physical degradation owing to delamination and voids, the reliability of the structures has become a concern. The ultrasonic inspection method is the most popular nondestructive method for detecting defects occurring in these structures, but this method has limitations in detecting defects owing to high anisotropy and sound attenuation. Moreover, the existing ultrasonic inspection method requires significant time and costs if used for large materials and structures. Therefore, we have developed a water squirter using a multi-joint robot and an automatic ultrasonic inspection system that adopts the through transmission ultrasonic inspection method to resolve these issues. The study observed that this system could effectively detect defects occurring in the composite material.