Small inspection vehicles for non-destructive testing applications

Abstract

Miniature autonomous vehicles offer high potential for inspection tasks in areas where access is difficult or that are hazardous for human intervention. This paper focuses on the design of small mobile robots for nondestructive testing (NDT) of ferromagnetic materials. The major challenge in this connection is miniaturisation, as climbing skills are required in order to cope with various types of inclined or curved surfaces and ceilings. The proposed compact design involves permanent magnets that provide both the holding force and the source of the magnetic field for surface inspection using Hall Elements. Experiments show that artificial defects up to 1 mm width can be detected reliably with this passive inspection method. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.