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I. Durazo-Cardenas, A. Starr, W. Nofal, H. Liu, M. Rahimi, F. He, M. Poulter, "Demonstration of an autonomous ultrasonic testing concept for rail flaws inspection", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK, Online volume: CCC 1, Paper 10.23, 2022, doi:10.4203/ccc.1.10.23

Keywords: autonomous, robotics, maintenance, inspection.

Abstract

This research demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous ultrasonic inspections to technical readiness level (TRL) 5. An autonomous prototype was constructed for this research, using both commercially available ultrasonics instrumentation, and an unmanned on-track vehicle platform, which comprised of a Clearpath’s Warthog and a road rail vehicle (RRV) trolley. During the test programme, the prototype was programmed to travel back and forth on a section of the test track. Repeat fault inspections were successful in detecting seeded simulated defects, at depths of 23 and 27 mm. Detection was signalled by an audible alarm triggered by the ultrasound signals exceeding the flaw detector gate threshold. Fault detection message passing was also demonstrated using a simple plain text message over local area network (LAN) WIFI to a simulated server. Consistency of the inspection prototype repetitive positioning was verified by odometry, global positioning system (GPS) and positional measurements, relative to the vehicle start and end positions to the fault. There was good agreement with the results of the three measurements methods. The positional error ranged from 3 to 7 cm. This research highlighted the great potential for autonomous ultrasonic inspections. Limitations and future work recommendations are discussed.

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Front Page Browse CCC CCP CSETS CTR IJRT Other Authors Search Purchase Guide FAQ Contact us	Civil-Comp Conferences ISSN 2753-3239 CCC: 1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE Edited by: J. Pombo Paper 10.23 Demonstration of an autonomous ultrasonic testing concept for rail flaws inspection I. Durazo-Cardenas¹, A. Starr¹, W. Nofal¹, H. Liu¹, M. Rahimi¹, F. He¹ and M. Poulter² ¹Centre for Life-Cycle Engineering and Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, United Kingdom ²Network Rail, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom doi:10.4203/ccc.1.10.23 Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper I. Durazo-Cardenas, A. Starr, W. Nofal, H. Liu, M. Rahimi, F. He, M. Poulter, "Demonstration of an autonomous ultrasonic testing concept for rail flaws inspection", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK, Online volume: CCC 1, Paper 10.23, 2022, doi:10.4203/ccc.1.10.23 Keywords: autonomous, robotics, maintenance, inspection. Abstract This research demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous ultrasonic inspections to technical readiness level (TRL) 5. An autonomous prototype was constructed for this research, using both commercially available ultrasonics instrumentation, and an unmanned on-track vehicle platform, which comprised of a Clearpath’s Warthog and a road rail vehicle (RRV) trolley. During the test programme, the prototype was programmed to travel back and forth on a section of the test track. Repeat fault inspections were successful in detecting seeded simulated defects, at depths of 23 and 27 mm. Detection was signalled by an audible alarm triggered by the ultrasound signals exceeding the flaw detector gate threshold. Fault detection message passing was also demonstrated using a simple plain text message over local area network (LAN) WIFI to a simulated server. Consistency of the inspection prototype repetitive positioning was verified by odometry, global positioning system (GPS) and positional measurements, relative to the vehicle start and end positions to the fault. There was good agreement with the results of the three measurements methods. The positional error ranged from 3 to 7 cm. This research highlighted the great potential for autonomous ultrasonic inspections. Limitations and future work recommendations are discussed. download the full-text of this paper (PDF, 10 pages, 497 Kb) go to the previous paper go to the next paper return to the table of contents return to the volume description
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