Industrial robot-based system design of thickness scanning measurement using ultrasonic

Abstract. Wall thickness is one of the core indicators for measuring the quality of large thin-walled parts such as rocket siding and aircraft skin. However, the traditional handheld thickness measurement method has high labor intensity, low efficiency and poor accuracy consistency. Therefore, an in situ ultrasonic automatic scanning thickness measurement method for large thin-walled parts based on industrial robots is proposed. This “industrial robot  +  ultrasound” integrated function is a compact system, and a set of innovative methodological or technical solutions is presented, such as (i) TCP and UDP communication protocols being constructed to realize a high-speed and stable communication relationship between the upper computer, robot motion controller and ultrasonic thickness measurement unit; (ii) a coupling gap adjustment method based on eddy-current sensors being adopted to ensure the adaptability of the ultrasonic probe to surface topography of the measured part during scanning measurement; and (iii) a multi-sensor coordinate unified model and coupling gap state discrimination model being established for robot-aided thickness measurement. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, a series of calibrations and experiments were designed based on the KUKA robot platform and the developed ultrasonic pulse measurement system. Finally, the industrial robot-based ultrasonic thickness scanning measurement has been built and tested for performing the measurement of a rocket tank wall.