Abstract
This paper describes a new low-cost means to detect and locate mechanical impacts (collisions) on a 3D metal-based structure. We employ the simple and reasonably hypothesis that the use of a homogeneous material will allow certain details of the impact to be automatically determined by measuring the time delays of acoustic wave propagation throughout the 3D structure. The location of strategic piezoelectric sensors on the structure and an electronic-computerized system has allowed us to determine the instant and position at which the impact is produced. The proposed automatic system allows us to fully integrate impact point detection and the task of inspecting the point or zone at which this impact occurs. What is more, the proposed method can be easily integrated into a robot-based inspection system capable of moving over 3D metallic structures, thus avoiding (or minimizing) the need for direct human intervention. Experimental results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Highlights
During the last few years various climbing robots have been developed for different inspection purpose applications
The use of an autonomous climbing robot to inspect this type of structure avoids or reduces the need for a direct human presence, which is an important advantage from the viewpoint of safety and human resources
This paper is focused on the development of a new automatic means to detect and locate mechanical impacts on 3D metal-based structures, helping to improve the possible tasks related to the robotized inspection of the point or zone of impact and avoiding direct human intervention on the structure
Summary
During the last few years various climbing robots have been developed for different inspection purpose applications. For the second type of unexpected inspection, only the zone of interest has to be reached and inspected In these cases, the first step consists of detecting and locating the point at which this impact has occurred, after which a climbing robot will access this zone. This paper is focused on the development of a new automatic means to detect and locate mechanical impacts (collisions) on 3D metal-based structures, helping to improve the possible tasks related to the robotized inspection of the point or zone of impact and avoiding (or reducing) direct human intervention on the structure. The proposed method for locating and detecting an impact on a metallic bar [20,21,22] and flat surfaces [23] based on the propagation of acoustic signals on.
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