In May 2019 ACCURATe project partners TWI, Kuka, Innolas and RECENDT completed the assembly of the prototype robotic LUT Inspection system at Kuka's manufacturing facility in Halesowen (Birmingham, UK). The assembly brought together all aspects of the system including the detection and generation lasers, fibre coupled laser head, interferometer, robot control system, 7-axis robotic manipulator and the UT data acquisition and analysis software. The prototype system was installed within in a temporary light proof safety enclosure for the purposes of testing. The photos below show the laser and robot systems assembled in the temporary safety enclosure and ready for test:
Following installation checks, commissioning and risk assessments, the initial tests were successfully carried out in early June 2019, demonstrating "proof of concept" for the proposed robotic LUT inspection technique. The tests verified that all aspects laser, robot, UT detection and data acquisition software systems all interact and function as expected. The next step is to complete the optimisation of the laser system and conduct a more intensive testing programme which will measure the full capabilities of the system. Here is a photo and video, both taken during the testing:
