Intelligent Operator‐Independent Flexibility in Robotic Non‐Destructive Evaluation

The non‐destructive evaluation (NDE) of high‐value components is commonly regarded as a bottleneck in the manufacturing industry. Even though robotic automation is leveraged these days to accelerate the process, productivity is still hindered by the limitations of robotic and automated systems requiring intensive calibrations and precise fixturing of inspection components. This restricts the systems’ flexibility and ability to adapt to uncertainties in part geometry, inspection process or changing environments . This study presents a system that is both flexible and adaptable, integrating 3D vision sensing and force‐position control with the human‐collaborative KUKA LBR robot. The system is designed for the geometry‐agnostic, precise delivery of ultrasonic NDE sensors, enabling the inspection of materials with varying geometries and surface profiles . The developed system demonstrated its efficacy by providing the user with the ability to inspect a given workpiece at a random pose without having prior knowledge of the component. Pose independence was proven with multiple scans producing consistent results, achieving high inspection sensitivity via detecting 100% of the fabricated defects in the scan region. This study has succeeded in investigating the suitability of flexible human‐collaborative manipulators for NDE and showcases the successful integration of an adaptable scanning system capable of identifying and scanning varying geometries regardless of pose while producing high‐quality scans consistently. The study achieved a significant time savings of ≈97%, reducing setup and processing time from 35 to just 1 min.