DEVELOPMENT OF A CLIMBING ROBOT FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF NDT SENSORS IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS

The development of a remote robotic non-destructive testing system, fo r use particularly in hazardous environments, is described. Ultrasonic C-scan images of machined defects (simulated backwall corrosion) are presented in this paper. This system has been designed and constructed in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering a t South Bank University, London. This system features a wall-climbing robot, an industrial robotic arm and an IBM PC with in-house written s oftware for data acquisitions, communications and NDT examinations. Su ch a system has the potential for achieving considerable cost benefits in the inspection of large structures compared with traditional metho ds.