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The pursuit of non-contact techniques for detecting ultrasonic waves propagating on the surface of solids is stimulated by the possibility of gaining some advantages over conventional contact methods. Non-contact methods are becoming a milestone in performing non-destructive evaluation in several industrial fields, where hazardous environments, narrow spaces, high temperatures, and complex geometries are encountered. Such methods exploit photo-acoustic interactions between light and sound waves. This work compares two non-contact laser-based methods for detecting artificial flaws of different sizes in metallic specimens. It uses multi-signal homodyne interferometry and single beam deflectometry to record the ultrasonic waves produced by a piezoelectric probe capable of generating surface Rayleigh waves. The results were analysed in both time and frequency domains. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio was evaluated for both measurement systems by changing the distance between the defect and the point where the signals were collected. The results show the main differences between the two techniques and the practicalities associated with their usage. The employed refractometric method has a lower sensitivity to surface roughness than the interferometric method. On the other hand, the interferometric technique allows for higher spatial resolution, wider frequency bandwidth and a higher detectable frequency (i.e., detecting low-sized defects).

The requirement to increase inspection speeds for non-destructive testing (NDT) of composite aerospace parts is common to many manufacturers. The prevalence of complex curved surfaces in the industry provides motivation for the use of 6 axis robots in these inspections. The purpose of this paper is to present work undertaken for the development of a KUKA robot manipulator based automated NDT system. A new software solution is presented that enables flexible trajectory planning to be accomplished for the inspection of complex curved surfaces often encountered in engineering production. The techniques and issues associated with conventional manual inspection techniques and automated systems for the inspection of large complex surfaces were reviewed. This approach has directly influenced the development of a MATLAB toolbox targeted to NDT automation, capable of complex path planning, obstacle avoidance, and external synchronization between robots and associated external NDT systems. This paper highlights the advantages of this software over conventional off-line-programming approaches when applied to NDT measurements. An experimental validation of path trajectory generation, on a large and curved composite aerofoil component, is presented. Comparative metrology experiments were undertaken to evaluate the real path accuracy of the toolbox when inspecting a curved 0.5m2 and a 1.6m2 surface using a KUKA KR16 L6-2 robot. The results have shown that the deviation of the distance between the commanded TCPs and the feedback positions were within 2.7mm. The variance of the standoff between the probe and the scanned surfaces was smaller than the variance obtainable via commercial path-planning software. Tool paths were generated directly on the triangular mesh imported from the CAD models of the inspected components without need for an approximating analytical surface. By implementing full external control of the robotic hardware, it has been possible to synchronise the NDT data collection with positions at all points along the path, and our approach allows for the future development of additional functionality that is specific to NDT inspection problems. For the current NDT application, the deviations from CAD design and the requirements for both coarse and fine inspections, dependent on measured NDT data, demand flexibility in path planning beyond what is currently available from existing off-line robot programming software.