Advanced diagnostics of aircraft structures using automated non-invasive imaging techniques

There is an innovative need for more efficient and reliable damage inspection, reducing time and cost of maintenance without compromising the safety of passengers and goods transported. The ultimate objective of the research is to deliver an automated innovative damage evaluation tool capable to detect and characterize damage on either metallic or composite structures by novel optimised fusion of various advanced imaging technologies such as ultrasound, infrared, visual, etc. The respective scientific results of the research are:
1. To provide novel approaches for assessing damage in materials used in the transport sector and identify surface and internal discontinuities with size to depth ratio less than 1.5 and detect the size, type and depth of the defect.
2. To develop innovative image recognition methodology capable of fusing the various imaging tools and providing a reliable and automatic detection of different types of defects in metal and composites.
3. To develop novel image fusion technology for optimal combination of the developed imaging techniques.
4. Software development for the advanced imaging data selection and processing.
5. Development of a high precision spatial positioning system, capable of tracking the position of the non-invasive imaging sensors relative to the component under inspection.