Autonomous phased array ultrasound robotic NDT of long weld lines (AWI)

Marine Class rules require the performance of an integrity survey every five years involving dry-docking the vessel, with external hull inspection, maintenance carried out as required (cleaning and painting). Safety societies demand that 100% ultrasonic testing should be performed on these welds. This represents the welding and inspection of some 0.5 km of weld line between the hull sections on the external surface of the hull. The length of time taken for human operators to perform all of this welding and inspection has obvious implications for high labour costs and high incidence of fatigue-induced mistakes and safety risks for personnel performing the inspections. An automated process would reduce costs to shipbuilder, reduce the need for hazardous working at height and improve consistency, reliability and availability of inspection data. However, current automated solutions involve large gantry robots that are unwieldy and expensive and for these reasons are not widely used.
The shipping industry in the UK is undergoing a renaissance with specialization in high specification specialist and luxury vessels. The UK also has many companies, such as project lead NDT Consultants providing specialist inspection services to the global market.
The aim of AWI is to develop mobile robots that can climb vertical and curved hull surfaces to deploy inspection tool. The system will be autonomous, and require no external scaffolding or gantry structures and relatively low cost. AWI will provide the project lead NDT Consultants Ltd. with new inspection services that they will use to expand their business in the global inspection industry. The supply chain consortium also includes a robotics systems SME manufacturer who will bring new robotic solutions to market.

The non-destructive testing (NDT) market, comprising services and equipment, is a mature market. The equipment segment is expected to reach $1.7bn by 2020, and grow at a CAGR of 3.5%. Currently, with the necessary expertise, the U.S. and Europe are the major regions for NDT sales. However, the market is growing rapidly especially in BRIC (Brazil, India, Russia, and China). Asia-Pacific will become the leading market for NDT testing, due to the high growth in infrastructure in India and China. There are 50-75 players in the market place. There are 795 shipyards across the world (Asia, 294; Middle East & Africa, 49; Europe, 261; North America, 144; South and Central America, 47). In order to assess the total addressable market, we have estimated that each major shipyard should be able to access 2 AWI robots (either owning or leasing). This generates a total addressable market of 1590 units. This assessment does not take into account sales for AWI for the testing of other types of welds, such as in storage tanks.
AWI would be considered a 'test machine' - highly adapted for a particular environment. The 'test machine' product segment commands the highest revenue, and is the most competitive, accounting in 2012, for 56% of sales by predominantly system integrators. Market drivers are user friendly software, advances in electronics, automation, robotics, and a high likelihood of a good return on investment. Market restraints are; robust government regulations, high infrastructure costs, and lack of product knowledge by the users (training, experience). There is ample scope to differentiate and innovate in price and design. GE and Olympus are leaders in NDT systems but don't provide robotic solutions or cater for specific industries such as shipbuilding. Special purpose NDT demand is high and miniaturisation and automation are high on customer's list of expectations. Given the lack of trained professionals any offering should come with an adaptable and rigorous training and support package.

The NDT market is dominated by ultrasonic (UT), radiography, and Eddy current testing technologies, with UT the first choice of the end users for flaw determination. Emerging technologies are phased array ultrasonic (PAUT) complimented by time-of-flight (TOFD), guided wave UT, and X-Ray computed radiography. More recently total focusing method (TFM) is emerging as a useful refinement of PAUT. Guided wave UT is anticipated to drive product development plans, while TFM is expected to be the future of ultrasonic NDT equipment. The market is in its maturity period yet some technologies used within it are still in their growing stage - PAUT represents the highest growing technology segment. Customer expectations are that these technologies are integrated with asset management, integrity assessments, and decision support tools. However, future customers of AWI will most likely have these already and AWI will focus on the robotic solution and integration with NDT, providing gateways to corporate asset management systems.