Institute for High-Performance Computing and Networking, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy.
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Aug 20;22(16):6267. doi: 10.3390/s22166267.
Increasing the efficiency of the quality control phase in industrial production lines through automation is a rapidly growing trend. In non-destructive testing, active thermography techniques are known for their suitability to allow rapid non-contact and full-field inspections. The robotic manipulation of the thermographic instrumentation enables the possibility of performing inspections of large components with complex geometries by collecting multiple thermographic images from optimal positions. The robotisation of the thermographic inspection is highly desirable to improve assessment speed and repeatability without compromising inspection accuracy. Although integrating a robotic setup for thermographic data capture is not challenging, the application of robotic thermography has not grown significantly to date due to the absence of a suitable approach for merging multiple thermographic images into a single presentation. Indeed, such an approach must guarantee accurate alignment and consistent pixel blending, which is crucial to facilitate defect detection and sizing. In this work, an innovative inspection platform was conceptualised and implemented, consisting of a pulsed thermography setup, a six-axis robotic manipulator and an algorithm for image alignment, correction and blending. The performance of the inspection platform is tested on a convex-shaped specimen with artificial defects, which highlights the potential of the new combined approach. This work bridges a technology gap, making thermographic inspections more deployable in industrial environments. The proposed fine image alignment approach can find applicability beyond thermographic non-destructive testing.
通过自动化提高工业生产线质量控制阶段的效率是一个快速发展的趋势。在无损检测中，主动热成像技术以其适合快速非接触式和全场检测的特点而闻名。热成像仪器的机器人操作使得从最佳位置收集多个热成像图像以检查具有复杂几何形状的大型组件成为可能。机器人化的热成像检查非常需要提高评估速度和可重复性，而不影响检查准确性。尽管集成用于热成像数据采集的机器人设置并不具有挑战性，但由于缺乏将多个热成像图像合并为单个演示的合适方法，到目前为止，机器人热成像的应用并没有显著增长。事实上，这种方法必须保证准确的对准和一致的像素混合，这对于促进缺陷检测和尺寸测量至关重要。在这项工作中，设计并实现了一种创新的检查平台，包括脉冲热成像设置、六轴机器人操纵器和用于图像对准、校正和混合的算法。该检查平台在具有人工缺陷的凸形试件上进行了测试，突出了新的组合方法的潜力。这项工作弥合了技术差距，使热成像检查更能在工业环境中部署。所提出的精细图像对准方法可能在热成像无损检测之外具有适用性。
