[1B2] ‘Pilot’: a new open platform for high-level conventional ultrasonic testing
H Calas¹, C Thibault¹, J Skidmore², C Popplewell² and E Carcreff¹
¹The Phased Array Company (TPAC), France
²Advanced OEM Solutions (AOS)/The Phased Array Company (TPAC), UK
In this paper, the authors present a new platform for conventional ultrasonic testing called ‘Pilot’. The Pilot has eight channels that can be used in pulse-echo or in through-transmission in numerous industrial applications and research areas. The quantisation is performed over 27 bits, which is unique in the non-destructive testing market. This high dynamic is beneficial in many industrial cases, such as air-coupled ultrasound, concrete testing, polymer testing and so on. The system can be used with Fastview software for high-level applications. In addition, it can be used in an application programming interface (API) mode with MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW and C++. A presentation of the hardware is made and software aspects are described. A real application showing air-coupled inspection of a carbon fibre composite plate is presented. This application is performed using a robot arm that is synchronised with the hardware. The final result is a map of the transmission coefficient in the composite plate. This map gives information on defects inside the sample, such as voids or delaminations.
