FANTOM project forms basis for automated aerocomposite NDT

FANTOM’s final cobotic platform. Source | IRT Jules Vernes

The French Institute for Technological Research (IRT Jules Verne, Bouguenais) and its partners Airbus, Axiome, Daher, Testia and CEA List, announce the completion of the FANTOM project, a collaborative program marking a key milestone in the automation of nondestructive testing (NDT) for the aerospace industry. The project has enabled the development of an innovative robotized platform, meeting the challenges of flexibility and efficiency in the inspection of large composite parts.

Over a 3-year period, the FANTOM project mobilized the expertise of its partners to design an automated inspection solution integrated into industrial production lines. In the aeronautics sector, the need to ensure the quality and safety of composite structures calls for demanding NDT operations that are often long and costly.

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FANTOM responded to this challenge by introducing a cobotic platform capable of automated, adaptive inspections. The flexibility of this solution enables inspection operations to be optimized, while at the same time reducing part downtime — a crucial factor in aerospace’s increasing pace of production.

FANTOM incorporates several technological innovations:

• A mobile robotic system, capable of inspecting parts autonomously while ensuring optimum precision.
• Advanced inspection end effectors, including a flexible membrane ultrasound probe developed by Imasonic, enabling high-precision inspection without complex preparation.
• The integration of AI for defect analysis and inspection path optimization, reducing the risk of human error.
• An intuitive operator interface, facilitating supervision and data processing thanks to the NDTkit postprocessing software developed by Testia.

The results of the FANTOM project are reported to pave the way for a new generation of robotized NDT systems, capable of integrating efficiently into modern production processes. The platform’s adaptability means it can be deployed beyond the aerospace sector in other industries such as energy and naval.

“This project has enabled us to remove major technological barriers,” notes Nicolas Colin, technical leader of the project and NDT expert at IRT Jules Verne. “Thanks to FANTOM, we have taken a crucial step towards more intelligent, more agile NDT, better adapted to current and future industrial needs.”