Compliance contact force control of robotic manipulator for ultrasonic testing

This paper describes an automatic compliance contact force control system of a robotic manipulator for ultrasonic testing. For a successful ultrasonic testing, a transducer has to be kept perfectly contacted with structural surface with an appropriate contact pressure. In this regard, an active contact force control has been adopted to a robotic ultrasonic testing system in combination with a passive compliance. To avoid the failure due to a conventional contact force control in ultrasonic testing, we have developed a new active contact force control system using a compliance equipped with a force detector. The present system was successfully applied to the ultrasonic testing of a simple test specimen. (author)