Autonomous phased array ultrasound robotic NDT of long weld lines (AWI)

船级社规则要求每五年进行一次完整性检验，包括干船坞检验、外部船体检查、按要求进行维护（清洁和油漆）。安全协会要求对这些焊缝进行100%的超声波检测。这代表了船体外表面船体部分之间约0.5公里焊缝的焊接和检查。人工操作人员执行所有这些焊接和检查所花费的时间长度显然意味着高劳动力成本和高疲劳引起的错误发生率以及执行检查人员的安全风险。自动化过程将降低造船商的成本，减少对高空危险作业的需求，提高检验数据的一致性、可靠性和可用性。然而，目前的自动化解决方案涉及大型龙门机器人，既笨重又昂贵，因此没有得到广泛应用。航运业在英国正在经历一个复兴与专业化的高规格专家和豪华船。英国也有许多公司，如项目领导的无损检测顾问公司，为全球市场提供专业的检测服务。AWI的目标是开发能够爬上垂直和弯曲船体表面以部署检测工具的移动机器人。该系统将是自主的，不需要外部脚手架或龙门架结构，成本相对较低。AWI将为项目负责人NDT Consultants Ltd.提供新的检测服务，以扩大其在全球检测行业的业务。供应链联盟还包括一家机器人系统中小企业制造商，该制造商将为市场带来新的机器人解决方案。

Marine Class rules require the performance of an integrity survey every five years involving dry-docking the vessel, with external hull inspection, maintenance carried out as required (cleaning and painting). Safety societies demand that 100% ultrasonic testing should be performed on these welds. This represents the welding and inspection of some 0.5 km of weld line between the hull sections on the external surface of the hull. The length of time taken for human operators to perform all of this welding and inspection has obvious implications for high labour costs and high incidence of fatigue-induced mistakes and safety risks for personnel performing the inspections. An automated process would reduce costs to shipbuilder, reduce the need for hazardous working at height and improve consistency, reliability and availability of inspection data. However, current automated solutions involve large gantry robots that are unwieldy and expensive and for these reasons are not widely used.The shipping industry in the UK is undergoing a renaissance with specialization in high specification specialist and luxury vessels. The UK also has many companies, such as project lead NDT Consultants providing specialist inspection services to the global market. The aim of AWI is to develop mobile robots that can climb vertical and curved hull surfaces to deploy inspection tool. The system will be autonomous, and require no external scaffolding or gantry structures and relatively low cost. AWI will provide the project lead NDT Consultants Ltd. with new inspection services that they will use to expand their business in the global inspection industry. The supply chain consortium also includes a robotics systems SME manufacturer who will bring new robotic solutions to market.