The SubCTest Demo project will implement the technology demonstrated at the end of the preceding Research for SMEs project SubCTest. The purpose of the SubCTest Demo project is to accelerate the pace of the technologies towards commercial maturity. The original project SubCTest, ‘Development of novel Non Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques and autonomous robots to be deployed by Remote Operating Vehicles (ROVs) for the sub-sea inspection of offshore structure welds’ was submitted in the call FP7-BSG-SME and received the grant agreement number 222174. This project was a two year project sponsored by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework (FP7) Research for the benefit of SMEs that started 1 September 2008 and completed in October 2010.
The SubCTest project was for the benefit of participating high technology SMEs that wanted to develop their existing Non Destructive Testing (NDT), robotic technologies and techniques into new offshore sub-sea inspection applications.
NDT technologies developed during SubCTest project have included a Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT) to inspect multiple welds from one inspection point, a Phased Array-Automated Ultrasonic Testing (PA-AUT) for volumetric weld inspection and an Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM) in order to detect surface braking fatigue cracks.
In the following figure, the hierarchy of the SubCTest system shows that only the LRUT subsystem will be considered for this new one SubCTestDEMO project.
In relation to the Technology Readiness Level of the LRUT system, illustrated in following figure, all the subsystems comprise of the Graphical User Interface. Instrumentation and Manipulator are located between TRL6 and TRL7, proving their application in a real environment.
More information about the previous SubCTest projects and the technologies described can be found in the following link:
www.subctest.com
As previously mentioned, the SubCTestDEMO project aims to further accelerate the pace of the technologies towards commercial maturity, regarding the developed LRUT system and a new EMAT system, targeting the technology readiness to level 9 with actual systems proven through successful mission operations.
