3D Mapping of X-Ray Images in Inspections of Aerospace Parts

In this work we present an industrial system for the inspection of composite parts in the aerospace industry, based on X-ray sensors and robotic manipulators. Such system is designed to identify any type of defects such as, missing gluing, core cell deformation, cracks or foreign objects, which may occur between layers of which these objects are composed. The inspection process involves back-projection of X-ray images onto the 3D CAD model of the inspected part, to directly locate the defects on the part itself. The complete system has been implemented in a real industrial workcell that involves two synchronized robots equipped with a X-ray source-detector system. The two robots move autonomously along a pre-computed trajectory without any human intervention, and the back-projection of the acquired images is efficiently performed at run-time using the proposed algorithm. The experiments demonstrate that the X-ray images back-projection is successful and can effectively replace standard manually guided inspections. This has a high impact on the factory automation cycle since it helps to reduce the effort and time needed for each inspection task. This work is part of a EU funded project called SPIRIT.