Tariq Pervez Sattar

London South Bank University | LSBU · School of Engineering

Indoor localization for mobile robots are investigated in this paper. Indoor localisation can direct robots to do a range of duties, including monitoring youngsters or the elderly, assisting the visually impaired in their mobility, and identifying mobile objects or goods in warehouses. These techniques are essential for robot localisation when they...

A wind turbine blade inspection system called Winspector has been developed by a European consortium to automate the in-situ non-destructive testing of wind blades. A robot platform is winched up a wind turbine tower to reach a blade locked into a 90° pitch angle. The blade region to be inspected is reached by a combination of an extension ladder a...

The RADBLAD project aims to demonstrate a step change in the accurate and fast in-situ non-destructive testing of wind turbine blades located off-shore using remote robotic deployment of X-ray radiography at great heights to image the full thickness of a blade. This paper describes the development of the robot system that deploys an X-ray source an...

Data acquisition during storage tank inspection is one of the most important aspects for petrochemical storage tank owners. Mobile inspection robots designed to enter inside a storage tanks without taking the tank out of service are required to enter through manholes on the roof of the tank with openings as small as 300-mm diameter. These robots ar...

The extreme operational environmental conditions and aging conditions of subsea structures pose a risk to their structural integrity and is critical to their safety. Non-destructive testing is essential to identify defects developing within the structure, allowing repair in a timely manner to mitigate against failures that cause damage to the envir...

A wall climbing inspection robot has been designed to climb on safety critical concrete structures by adhering to reinforcement steel bars (rebars) using permanent magnets to generate the adhesion forces. Simulation and experimental validation has been performed to determine the optimum flux focusing magnet configurations with the robot operating o...

The focus of this work is to investigate the adhesion characteristics of a permanent magnet arrangement over ferromagnetic surfaces for wall-climbing robot applications. The changes in wall thickness affect the adhesion characteristics of the robot, this, in turn, influences the payload and alters the operating conditions. The effect of varying the wa...

The focus of this work is to investigate the adhesion characteristics of a permanent magnet arrangement over ferromagnetic surfaces for wall-climbing robot applications. The changes in wall thickness affect the adhesion characteristics of the robot, this, in turn, influences the payload and alters the operating conditions. The effect of varying the...

Wall Climbing Robots (WCRs) have found extensive applications in the past decade in numerous engineering fields, however, the design of efficient adhesion mechanism for robots climbing on concrete surfaces remains a challenge and attracts research attention. This paper proposes various designs of magnetic adhesion mechanism for concrete surfaces an...

Designing climbing robots for industrial applications, has been proven to be an egg and chicken problem. The more the payload the more adhesion force needed. In order to move a robot upwards with such a force, motors with bigger torque are required and thus, increasing the payload. Similarly, increasing the adhesion force is likely to increase the...

Acoustic emission (AE) is a passive nondestructive testing (NDT) technique which is employed to identify critical damage in structures before failure can occur. Currently, AE monitoring is carried out by calculating the features of the signal received by the AE sensor. User-defined acquisition settings (i.e., timing and threshold) significantly aff...

The increase in the market for supersized LNG (liquefied natural gas) vessels, with double wall cargo tanks, has led to concerns regarding their safe operation. If both the primary and secondary wall of the cargo tank fail simultaneously, the hull of the vessel can be exposed to the LNG. This has the potential to cause brittle failure of the hull s...

Wall climbing robots require adhesion methods which are suited to the climbing surface material and roughness. In this paper, an optimum design of a magnetic adhesion mechanism has been developed for ferrous surfaces that maximises the magnetic adhesion force. This in turn maximises the payload that can be carried by the climbing robot. Experiments...

In-service mooring chains are subjected to harsh environmental conditions on a daily basis, which increases the necessity of integrity assessment of chain links. Periodic structural health monitoring of mooring chains is mandatory and vital in order to maintain the safety of floating platforms. Application of ultrasound for in-service mooring chain...

Purpose Mooring chains used to stabilise offshore floating platforms are often subjected to harsh environmental conditions on a daily basis, i.e. high tidal waves, storms, etc. Therefore, the integrity assessment of chain links is vital, and regular inspection is mandatory for offshore structures. The development of chain climbing robots is still...

This paper presents the development of a digital radiography-based system for sub-sea applications that is being implemented within the context of a H2020 EU funded project called "RiserSure". The system is capable of performing semi-automatic in-situ integrity inspections and providing detailed information on any damage to the metallic layers of f...

This paper presents investigations into wireless localization techniques for mobile robots operating in indoor environments. Localization systems can guide robots to perform different tasks such as monitoring children or elderly people, aid mobility of the visually impaired and localize mobile objects or packages in warehouses. They are essential f...

Inspection of mooring chains is an important but dangerous and costly procedure covering inspection above and below the waterline. The paper presents initial results from the RIMCAW project which aimed at designing and building an inspection robot able to climb mooring chains and deploy NDT technologies for scanning individual links thereby detecti...

Inspection of ship-hull welds must be carried out in accordance with classification society guidelines during manufacture and when in service. Failure of ship-hull welds can result in the loss of a vessel, loss of life and pollution of the environment. Typically weld lines are inspected using ultrasound NDT techniques which are labour intensive, ex...

The development of climbing robots for mooring chain applications is still in its infancy due to the operational complexity and the geometrical features of the chain. Mooring chains are subjected to high tidal waves, harsh environmental conditions and storms on a daily basis. Therefore, the integrity assessment of chain links is vital and regular i...

Increasing the use of Electric-Vehicles (EV) is regarded as a step in the right direction to reduce air-pollution and carbon emissions. However, a dramatic increase of EV and charging stations has raised voltage quality and harmonic distortion issues that affect the performance of integrated renewable power sources (wind and solar) and smart-grid e...

Reciprocating compressors are vital components in oil and gas industry, though their maintenance cost can be high. The valves are considered the most frequent failing part accounting for almost half the maintenance cost. Condition-Based Maintenance and Prognostics and Health Management which is based on diagnostics and prognostics principles can as...

Condition monitoring of industrial processes can minimize downtime and maintenance costs while enhancing the safety of operation of plants and increasing the quality of products. Multivariate statistical methods are widely used for condition monitoring in industrial plants due to the rapid growth and advancement in data acquisition technology. Howe...

One of the main objectives of Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring is to identify approaching critical stage of damage in the structure before it fails. State-of-the-art AE analysis is done on the features in both the time and frequency domains. Many features such as centroid frequency, duration, rise-time, count and energy are dependent on acquisitio...

Reciprocating compressors are critical components in the oil and gas sector, though their maintenance cost is known to be relatively high. Compressor valves are the weakest component, being the most frequent failure mode, accounting for almost half the maintenance cost. One of the major targets in industry is minimisation of downtime and cost, whil...

A rise of electric vehicles and consequent increase of charging stations in the UK has widely been acknowledged due to its negligible carbon emissions leading to the transformation of low-carbon economy. A dynamic increase in the wind and solar power systems installation and grid-integration to the charging stations of electric vehicles has led unc...

A rise of electric vehicles and consequent increase of charging stations in the UK has widely been acknowledged due to its negligible carbon emissions leading to the transformation of low-carbon economy. A dynamic increase in the wind and solar power systems installation and grid-integration to the charging stations of electric vehicles has led unc...

The likelihood calculation of a vast number of particles forms the computational bottleneck for the particle filter in applications where the observation model is complicated, especially when map or image processing is involved. In this paper, a numerical fitting approach is proposed to speed up the particle filter in which the likelihood of partic...

Decommissioning of nuclear structures requires cost effective remotely operated automated cutting techniques. Cutting with solid-state lasers employing optical fibre delivery of laser power in the multi-kilowatt range and with high focus ability of the beam offers the capability of a single laser source to address more than one type of process appl...

In this chapter, the detailed design of a novel adhesion mechanism is described for robots climbing on concrete structures. The aim is to deliver a low-power and sustainable adhesion technique for wall climbing robots to gain access to test sites on large concrete structures which may be located in hazardous industrial environments. A small, mobile...

In this paper, a miniaturized dipole antenna operating at 100MHz frequency for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) application is presented. A conventional dipole antenna length is half of its lowest operating frequency wavelength. As low frequency GPR system is vital for high depth penetration, the size of the antenna used reduces its easy handling and...

Adding extra radiating arms on a dipole antenna can significantly reduce antenna size. Laboratory prototype antenna achieved a 55% reduction in length compared to a conventional dipole of 100 MHz. The antenna delivers typical dipole radiation pattern delivers with directivity gain of 2.06 dBi. Proposed antenna shows significant improvement compared...

Over the lifetime of a concrete structure, different types of defect could occur. Non-destructive testing (NDT) systems assist in detection of those faults. However, current systems do not provide easier accessibility of Non-Destructive Equipment (NDE) to tall inspection area. This paper presents a proposed research of implementing magnetic adhesio...

This paper investigates the effect of key design parameters involved in optimizing the adhesion force achieved from rare earth neodymium magnets. In order to generate high adhesion force by using minimum number of permanent magnets, criteria such as distance between multiple magnets, thickness of flux concentrator have been evaluated by implementin...

In this paper, a one-dimensional numerical framework based on Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method is developed to model response behaviour of Ground penetrating radar (GPR). The effects of electrical properties such as dielectric constant, conductivity of the media have been evaluated. A Gaussian shaped pulse is used as source which propaga...

Mechatronics Engineering requires knowledge and skills from the fundamental disciplines of mechanical Engineering, electrical and electronics Engineering, Computer science and Computer Engineering. The Workshops in the book ate designed to give the key skills to design and develop mechatronics Systems. Chapter 1 Controlling industrial mechatronics...

This paper describes the development of Moorinspect, a novel robot that can climb on platform mooring chains both underwater and in air to non-destructively test (NDT) each link with long range ultrasound guided waves. The prototype robot is designed to be able to climb up/down a mooring chain for up to twenty metres below the surface, climb up thr...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a wireless positioning system. The automation of non-destructive testing (NDT) of large and complex geometry structures such as aircraft wings and fuselage is prohibitively expensive, though automation promises to improve on manual ultrasound testing. One inexpensive way to achieve automation is by...

To overcome engineering skills shortages in the UK, national science and engineering bodies are actively trying to encourage 11–14 year old pupils to take up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects. One strategy is to bring exciting developments in science and engineering to their attention through science exhibitions. This paper...

During the last two decades there has been a growing interest in Particle Filtering (PF). However, PF suffers from two long-standing problems that are referred to as sample degeneracy and impoverishment. We are investigating methods that are particularly efficient at Particle Distribution Optimization (PDO) to fight sample degeneracy and impoverish...

The purpose of this paper is to develop a wireless positioning system. The automation of non-destructive testing (NDT) of large and complex geometry structures such as aircraft wings and fuselage is prohibitively expensive, though automation promises to improve on manual ultrasound testing. One inexpensive way to achieve automation is by using a sm...

Manual Ultrasonic Non Destructive Testing (MUT) is vital in safety critical industries such as aerospace, chemical processing and power generation and is also well-known for its higher attainable flaw sensitivity than all other volumetric Non Destructive Testing systems. MUT generally provides cost-effective and high sensitivity to flaw detection w...

Keynote Plenary

Climbing robots have proven their abilities and enormous potential for industrial inspection tasks. These automated systems can climb, work, perform different actions in hazardous environments, changing between different types of surfaces and navigating through narrow spaces with difficult accessibility. Recently advances in mechanical engineering...

To solve the general multi-target tracking (MTT) problem, an improved Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) implementation of the probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter called as Sigma-gating SMC-PHD filter, is proposed that updates particles only using the local nearby measurements inside a specified sigma-gate. The sigma-gate is based on the given me...

The likelihood computation of a huge number of particles leads to enormous computational demands in a class of applications of the particle filter, such as visual target tracking and robot localization. To alleviate this computational bottleneck, we propose a numerical fitting approach for fast computation of the likelihood of particles. In which,...

Mahler's PHD (Probability Hypothesis Density) filter and its particle implementation (as called the particle PHD filter) have gained popularity to solve general MTT (Multi-target Tracking) problems. However, the resampling procedure used in the particle PHD filter can cause sample impoverishment. To rejuvenate the diversity of particles, two easy-t...

This letter provides an adaptive resampling method. It determines the number of particles to resample so that the Kullback-Leibler distance (KLD) between distribution of particles before resampling and after resampling does not exceed a pre-specified error bound. The basis of the method is the same as Fox's KLD-sampling but implemented differently....

An unbiased resampling method is proposed for particle filters which is computing fast for implementation. There are two differences of our approach from other methods. First, the number of the particles is not fixed but varies around a reference. Second, it is a deterministic sampling procedure since there is no random numbers used. The core idea...

This paper presents simulation of Angle of Arrival (AOA) estimation using the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) and Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Technique (ESPRIT) algorithms. We study the localization techniques using the wireless communication systems and there are several algorithms that have the ability in calc...

A novel resampling algorithm (called Deterministic Resampling) is proposed, which avoids uncensored discarding of low weighted particles thereby avoiding sample impoverishment. The diversity of particles is maintained by deterministically sampling support particles to improve the residual resampling. A proof is given that our approach can be strict...

Some robots need to climb ferromagnetic walls for performing important inspections and evaluations of the material properties of these walls. This paper aims to establish a design framework for magnetically adhering wheeled robots having magnets attached to the base of the robot. The different design parameters influencing the magnetic adhesion inc...

Mahler's PHD (Probability Hypothesis Density) filter provides a solution to multi-target tracking problems by jointly estimating the number of targets and their states through recursively propagating the state intensity function. However, the estimates of the intensity function and the number of targets comprise of an irreducible likelihood density...

This paper describes the design of an umbilical-free mobile non-destructive testing (NDT) climbing robot for industrial applications that is capable of inspecting oil tanks, pipelines, petro-chemical tanks, bridges, railways, etc. The mechanical design is based on a wheeled mobile robot with magnetic adhesion forces optimised with flux concentrator...

A control scheme and a sensor system are developed to enable a group of robots to work collaboratively. The control scheme maintains a desired configuration of a group of robots while they follow the trajectory of the leader robot. One robot is a pre-defined leader and other robots in the team are followers which follow the trajectory of the leader...

MoorInspect is a collaborative project within the European Unions (EU's) Framework Programme (FP) 7 research programme for Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). The 2-year project began in October 2011 and is being co-ordinated by Plant Integrity Ltd. This paper will describe the project's aims and the technology involved, highlighting the impo...

This keynote paper aims to highlight the application of mobile robots to perform inspection and non destructive testing (NDT) in industries such as aerospace, large scale fabrication, pipelines, petro-chemical storage and power generation. It describes industrial tasks where regular inspection is essential to ensure the integrity of infrastructure...

A control scheme and sensor system is proposed that allows groups of distributed mobile robots connected by physical link sensors to work co-operatively. Each robot in the group senses rotations and motions in order to follow changes in direction and position of neighbouring robots using information provided by link sensors mounted on the robots. A...

This paper describes the first and successful trials of a novel transportable manufacturing cell composed of cooperating climbing robots for on line quality controlled welding of large scale engineering structures such as ship hulls, large storage tanks and wind turbine towers. The cell performed welds on a 7 metre long by 2 metre wide place config...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a portable non‐destructive testing (NDT) robotic arm that can be carried by climbing and walking robots (CLAWAR). The arm is required to maintain, during a scanning trajectory, a desired NDT probe contact force and orientation to evaluate defects in geometrically complex industrial infrastructure and...

Purpose Structural integrity inspection of offshore wind turbine blades poses problems of gaining access to the blades, danger to human operatives and large costs of removing a blade and transporting it off‐shore for inspection. The purpose of this paper is to show that a climbing robot that can perform in situ blade inspection with micro/nano focu...

This paper describes the development of an automated NDT system deployed by a climbing robot for the inspection of vertical off ground weld structures of ship hull. The aim of this automated inspection system is to monitor quality of both cold and melt weld and detect melt weld pool flaws at early stage of the welding process and cooperate with a w...

The paper presents the test results of a swimming and floor moving robot inspection system to test welds located inside a floating production storage and offloading oil tank (FPSO tank). Currently these welds are inspected manually by first emptying and cleaning the tank. This is a time consuming and expensive operation that requires operators to e...

This paper presents a cooperative climbing robot which follows a welding robot for the inspection of long weld lines simultaneously with the automatic welding process. The robot is designed to climb on ferrous surfaces with strong neodymium magnets elevated by 20mm from the work surface for adhesion which is able to cope with 20mm height obstacles...

Purpose The project Climbing Robot Cell for Fast and Flexible Manufacture of Large Scale Structures seeks to modernise and take into the future the technology of the manufacture of large fixed welded structures. It creates a transportable manufacturing cell consisting of a team of cooperating climbing robot work tools whose activities are coordinat...

Purpose The paper aims to develop a robot that climbs on non‐ferrous surfaces, e.g. aircraft wings and fuselages, carrying a heavy payload up to 18 kg including scanning arm and various equipments, for non‐destructive testing (NDT). Design/methodology/approach This robot in the study uses vacuum suction cups for adhesion, and two pairs of pneumati...

Three prototype robots have been developed to gain entry into a large range of oil, petrochemical and process storage tanks. The robots are lightweight and compact so that they can be transported by one or two operators and easily inserted through the smallest manholes. The robots are amphibious, being able to operate in air and while submerged in...