Acquisition of Time of Flight Diffraction Data by Mobile Robots

It is shown that Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) data acquired with 6 and 7 axes robot scanning arms (that are carried by mobile wall climbing vehicles which can travel on curved surface) is of a much better quality than that acquired by manual deployment. The robotic devices are able to operate in remote and hazardous locations while maintaining more constant contact forces and obtaining repeatable data unaffected by fatigue which manual operators find very difficult to match.