PhD Studentship in Remote Robotic Laser Inspection of Welds and 3D Metal Printed Components

The majority of challenges for NDE and high value manufacturing today stem from the increased use of advanced materials and advanced processes that push the performance limits to extremes. Inspection techniques are faced with extreme operating environments (high temperature/radioactive environments), places of restricted access (e.g. the inside of engines or the human body), components of complex geometries, remote deployment, and in-process monitoring of high-value manufacturing (e.g. additive manufacturing). For all these reasons, what is needed is remote ultrasonic inspection: a technique that is non-contact, couplant free, has small footprint and minimal weight and can be delivered through an endoscope. Laser ultrasonics (LU) address these challenges and Laser Induced Phased Arrays (LIPAs) provide superior ultrasonic imaging than conventional LU techniques by successfully addressing the poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) usually associated with LU, especially for the non destructive regime.
The aim of the PhD is to enable automated, remote ultrasonic imaging, based on LIPAs, which will be deployed using robots on real and challenging processes -such as welding and 3D metal printing- environments and components.
The techniques to be developed will influence life-cycle costs of UK industrial products, enhancing the success of UK manufacturing, especially those depending on safety critical applications, such as aerospace. As a result, the results from this study will ensure safer transport, reduced usage of natural resources and benefit society as a whole.
Robotically delivered Laser Ultrasonic inspection offers a monumental opportunity to inspect components as they are being built, ultimately leading to automated on-line process monitoring. This project seeks to investigate the potential for combining state-of-the-art developments in 1) Automation and Robotics, 2) Advanced Phased Array Laser Ultrasonics and 3) Complex Fusion Welding and large-scale 3D metal printing. Specifically, this project will investigate and develop a system for laser-deployed inspection using a 6 Degree of Freedom (D.O.F.) manipulator for true 3D surface and volume mapping, for the first time. Automated interpretation of all-optically acquired, ultrasonic data, providing information on the location, size and type of defects, will also be developed. This interpretation will be adaptive and real-time, forming a feedback loop to the data acquisition process.
Optical-based techniques, which can be delivered through flexible optical fibres, are also best suited for places of restricted access, such as in situ inspection of engines, or the human body. This project is directly applicable to industrial sectors such as additive manufacturing, space, aerospace, nuclear, defence and even human health.
Robotic delivery of NDT inspection is an area where Strathclyde are international pioneers, using transducer based methods. LU will be integrated to the existing robots, addressing the requirements for increased inspection speeds and taking advantage of the flexible trajectory planning of the robotic system to realise LIPAs potential on synthesising arrays without physical constraints. The benefits are firstly expected in the inspection of curved structures and then for on-line process monitoring of welding and additive manufacturing.
In summary, there is a high degree of novelty in the proposed research plan. In particular, high academic and industrial impact is expected from the idea of remote robotic laser inspection and the development of automated decision making process.
The core objectives of the PhD study will be:
-Demonstration of LIPAs on industrial samples.
-Development of automated decision making process for the synthesis of LIPAs.
-Demonstration of the potential of the technique in a variety of inspection cases encountered in industry.
-Investigate on-line deployment of the inspection system within a realistic manufacturing environment.

The proposed CDT in NDE will deliver impact (Industrial, Individual and Societal) by progressing research, delivering commercial benefit and training highly employable doctoral-level recruits able to work across industry sectors.

Industry will benefit from this CDT resulting in competitive advantage to the industrial partners where our graduates will be placed and ultimately employed. The global NDE market itself has a value of USD15 billion p.a. [Markets and Markets NDE report January 2017] and is growing at 8% per year. Our partners include 49 companies, such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce, EDF, BAE Systems, SKF and Shell, whose ability to compete relies on NDE research. They will benefit through a doctoral-level workforce that can drive forward industrial challenges such as increased efficiency, safer operation, fewer interruptions to production, reduced wastage, and the ability to support new engineering developments. Our 35 supply chain partners who, for example, manufacture instrumentation or provide testing services and are keen to support the proposed CDT will benefit through graduates with skills that enable them to develop innovative new sensing and imaging techniques and instrumentation. To achieve this impact, all CDT research projects will be co-created with industry with an impact plan built-in to the project. Our EngD students will spend a significant amount of their time working in industry and our PhDs will be encouraged to take up shorter secondments. This exposure of our students to industry will lead to more rapid understanding, for both parties, of the barriers involved in making impact so that plans can be formulated to overcome these.

Individual impact will be significant for the cohorts of students. They will be trained in an extremely relevant knowledge-based field which has a significant demand for new highly skilled doctoral employees. These graduates will rejuvenate an ageing workforce as well as filling the doctoral skills and capability gaps identified by industry during the creation of this CDT. Our industrial partners will be involved in training delivery, e.g. entrepreneurial training to equip our graduates with the skills needed to translate new research into marketed products. Many of the partners are existing collaborators, who have been engaged regularly through the UK Research Centre in NDE (RCNDE), an industry-university collaboration. This has enabled the development of a 5,10 & 20 year vision for research needs across a range of market sectors and the CDT training will focus on these new priorities. Over the duration of the CDT we will actively discuss these priorities with our industry partners to ensure that they are still relevant. This impact will be achieved by a combination co-creation and collaboration on research projects, substantive industrial placements and as well as communication and engagement activities between academic partners and industry. Events aimed at fostering collaboration include an Annual CDT conference, technology transfer workshops, networking events as well as university visits by industrialists and vice versa, forming a close bond between research training and industrial impact. This approach will create lasting impact and ensure that the benefits to students, industry and society are maximised.

Society will benefit from this CDT through the research performed by our CDT graduates that will underpin safety and reliability across a wide range of industries, e.g. aerospace, energy, nuclear, automotive, defence and renewables. As NDE is an underpinning technology it feeds into many of the UK Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Grand Challenges, for example in energy, robotics, manufacturing and space. It is aligned to the EPSRC prosperity outcomes, e.g. the Productive Nation outcome requires NDE during manufacture to ensure quality and the Resilient Nation requires NDE to ensure reliable infrastructure and energy supplies.