Two opposite sides synchronous tracking X-ray based robotic system for welding inspection

For inspecting welding seams of large-scale equipment such as storage tanks and spherical tanks, it usually cost much manpower and material, while automated testing robot can achieve fast and accurate detection. Because X-ray Flat Panel Detector is dependent on specialized automated equipment, it can greatly enhance X-ray inspection technology in large storage tanks that applying the Mecanum Omnidirectional Mobile Robot into automated weld detection. In this paper, an X-ray Flat Panel Detector based wall-climbing robotic system is developed for intelligent detecting of welding seams. The robot system consists of two Mecanum vehicles equipped with either a Flat Panel Detector or an X-ray generator and climbing on both side of the tank wall. Inspection robot can carry detector stably with reliable suction force and adapt to different surfaces. To let the X-ray Flat Panel Detector work properly, dual cameras positioning system is used to ensure synchronous operation of the two robots. Some experiment was conducted and reported.