Various embodiments of a bio-inspired robot operable for detecting crack and corrosion defects in tubular structures are disclosed herein.

A method of automatically inspecting a weld bead deposited in a plurality of passes in a chamfer formed between two parts by performing the following steps: positioning at least one emission electromagnetic acoustic sensor on one side of the chamfer and at least one reception electromagnetic acoustic sensor on an opposite side of the chamfer, the ultrasound wave emission sensor being configured to emit Rayleigh surface waves; while depositing a pass, automatically moving the sensors to follow the movement of welding electrodes along the chamfer; activating the sensors while they are moving to enable the emission sensor to generate and emit Rayleigh waves towards the pass of the weld bead that is being deposited, the reception sensor receiving the ultrasound signals transmitted and/or reflected in said pass; and reiterating the operation for the entire pass of the weld bead.

There is described a probe for non-destructive testing of a curved object, the probe comprising an arrangement of magnets and coils configured for generating shear horizontal guided waves for propagating longitudinally in the object, the probe having a top surface, a bottom surface, and two opposed ends extending between the top surface and the bottom surface, the bottom surface having a non-zero curvature between the two opposed ends and matable with an outer surface of the curved object.

Method for determining the geometry of one or more real, examined defects of a metallic, in particular magnetizable object, in particular a pipe or a tank, by means of at least two reference data sets of the object generated on the basis of different, non-destructive measurement methods,

wherein the object is at least partially represented on or by an at least two-dimensional, preferably three-dimensional, object grid, in an EDP unit,
wherein an output defect geometry, in particular on the object grid or an at least two-dimensional defect grid, is generated by inversion of at least parts of the reference data sets, in particular by at least one neural network (NN) trained for this object, a respective prediction data set for the non-destructive measurement methods used in the generation of the reference data sets is calculated on the basis of the output defect geometry by a simulation routine, a comparison of at least parts of the prediction data sets with at least parts of the reference data sets is carried out and, depending on at least one accuracy measure, the method for determining the geometry of the defect is terminated or an iterative adjustment of the output defect geometry to the geometry of the real defect(s) is carried out, as well as methods for determining a load limit (FIG. 1).

A device and method for weld root hardening determination compensated for variations in distance between sensor and sample are disclosed. A sensor is used to determine hardness of a weld for weld fabrication quality control. Because of irregular weld protrusion geometry, there may be variations in the tip of the sensor and the surface, resulting in inconsistent measurements. To compensate, one or both of a positional compensation or a software compensation are performed. Positional compensation mechanically moves the tip of the sensor to within a predetermined range of the surface. Software compensation may at least partly compensate for the variation by using one part of the generated sensor data (such as the 1.sup.st harmonic signal) in order to modify another part of the generated sensor data (such as the 3.sup.rd harmonic signal). In this way, the sensor determination of hardness of the weld may be less dependent on the variations.

An electro-magnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) system and method for controlling the EMAT system are provided. The system includes an electromagnet array with one or more electromagnets. Each electromagnet includes a magnetic core and a wound coil wrapped around the magnetic core. The electromagnet array generates bias magnetic fields having different patterns when the wound coils are energized differently.

The present application describes a magneto-optical based guided waves system for inspection and monitoring of assets. The system has a magnetostrictive-based wave emitter for signal generation and a network of optical fiber sensors for detection, both mechanically coupled to the asset, a device with embedded software for hardware control and signal processing, and a framework capable of providing visual and analytic insights about the condition of the structure of interest. The enhancement of flaw detection, location and characterization abilities of the system are obtained through the use of high sensitivity and passive fiber optics sensors with very small size, distributed and multi-parameter sensing capabilities.

A non-destructive testing (NDT) system which includes a chassis, a NDT scanner which may be an ultrasound scanner, a drive system comprising at least one drive wheel and at least one drive motor, a guidance system operatively connected to the drive system for controlling the motion of the NDT system, and a magnet assembly for adhering the NDT 5 system to a ferromagnetic object, which magnet assembly is configured to be switched on or off as required.

Disclosed is an in vitro exposure system that may radiate a uniform field having a constant wavefront to an experimental cell container and expose each cell container to a same electromagnetic field.

In at least one illustrative embodiment, a system may include a basin that includes an index plate positioned at a bottom of the basin. The basin is configured to receive a liquid analyte, such as a liquid food product or a nutrient broth. The index plate includes an array of multiple wells. Each well opens into an interior of the basin and is sized to receive a magnetostrictive sensor in a predetermined orientation. One or more sensor coils is positionable beneath each well. The basin may be filled with liquid analyte and magnetostrictive sensors may be positioned in the wells. The liquid analyte may be allowed to incubate at a controlled temperature. A controller may position a sensor coil beneath a well, apply a varying magnetic field to a magnetostrictive sensor in the well, and detect a frequency response of the magnetostrictive sensor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.