• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.467-475
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• 2016

Ultrasonic propagation imaging (UPI) has shown great potential for detection of impairments in complex structures and can be used in wide range of non-destructive evaluation and structural health monitoring applications. The software implementation of such algorithms showed a tendency in time-consumption with increment in scan area because the processor shares its resources with a number of programs running at the same time. This issue was addressed by using field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) that is a dedicated processing solution and used for high speed signal processing algorithms. For this purpose, we need an independent and flexible block of logic which can be used with continuously evolvable hardware based on FPGA. In this paper, we developed an FPGA-based ultrasonic propagation imaging system, where FPGA functions for both data acquisition system and real-time ultrasonic signal processing. The developed UPI system using FPGA board provides better cost-effectiveness and resolution than digitizers, and much faster signal processing time than CPU which was tested using basic ultrasonic propagation algorithms such as ultrasonic wave propagation imaging and multi-directional adjacent wave subtraction. Finally, a comparison of results for processing time between a CPU-based UPI system and the novel FPGA-based system were presented to justify the objective of this research.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1753-1761
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• 2014

Due to the inherent inhomogeneous and anisotropy nature of the composite materials, the detection of internal defects in these materials with non-destructive techniques is an important requirement both for quality checks during the production phase and in service inspection during maintenance operations. The estimation of the time-of-arrival (TOA) and/or time-of-flight (TOF) of the ultrasonic echoes is essential in ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT). In this paper, we used split-spectrum processing (SSP) combined with matching pursuit signal decomposition (MPSD) to develop a dedicated ultrasonic detection system. SSP algorithm is used for Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) enhancement, and the MPSD algorithm is used to decompose backscattered signals into a linear expansion of chirplet echoes and estimate the chirplet parameters. Therefore, the combination of SSP and MPSD (SSP-MPSD) presents a powerful technique for ultrasonic NDT. The SSP algorithm is achieved by using Gaussian band pass filters. Then, MPSD algorithm uses the Maximum Likelihood Estimation. The good performance of the proposed method is experimentally verified using ultrasonic traces acquired from three specimens of carbon fibre reinforced polymer multi-layered composite materials (CFRP).

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1662-1670
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• 2017

A-Scan NDT equipment is widely used in the industrial field because it is inexpensive and easy to carry but it is necessary to have a skilled inspection specialist who is trained to analyze the waveform of ultrasonic signal. Since the welding quality is judged subjectively by the specialist, there is a problem in the reliability of the quality. In the C-Scan NDT which overcomes the shortcomings of the A-Scan, welding part can be represented in the form of two dimensional image by combining one dimensional ultrasonic waveform so that the quality of welding can be grasped without the help of specialist. In order to develop C-Scan NDT, it is necessary to develop an array type two dimensional transducer and an algorithm to composing image by combining ultrasonic signals generated from a two dimensional transducer. In addition, the noise component must be minimized in the ultrasonic signal in order to display the quality of welding in the form of images. Therefore we propose a method to remove noise component from the ultrasonic wave and construct a two dimensional ultrasonic image.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.230-237
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• 2012

The ultrasonic resonance method was applied to detect the disbond interface and empty layer between steel and FRP of the exit cone. The ultrasonic resonance method can easily detect the disbond interface and empty layer by amplifying the ultrasonic signal, but pulse echo method is difficult to distinguish adhesive interface from disbond interface or empty layer. The resonance frequency was predicted using the pressure reflection coefficient of 3-layered medium, and measured from ultrasonic signal of the test block using Fast Fourier Transform. The ultrasonic resonance proved that the predicted resonance frequency was in good agreement with the measured resonance frequency.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.47-52
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• 2011

We studied about the damaged tire decision algorithm that measured dominant period of ultrasonic signal due to a foreign material on the friction between tire and road surface. We computed the power spectrum about the envelope of ultrasonic signal acquired from the damaged tire, then proposed the dominant period decision algorithm by statistical power threshold value. As the result of simulation, when driving by the speed of 80km/h, the 100ms of dominant period that measured in the proposed algorithm is more accurate than the 97.6ms of power spectrum peak period referenced on the average period of ultrasonic signal envelope peak, 101.24ms.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2010

The multiple block localization method in a wide area for multiple robots using iGS is proposed in this paper. The iGS is developed for the indoor global localization using ultrasonic and RF sensors. To measure the distance between a mobile robot and a beacon, the tag on the mobile robot wakes up one beacon to send out the ultrasonic signal and measures the traveling time from the beacon to the mobile robot. As the number of robots is increased, the sampling time of localization also becomes longer. Note that only one robot can localize its own position calling beacons one by one during each of the sampling interval. This is a severe constraint for the localization of multiple robots in a wide area. This paper proposes an efficient localization algorithm for the multiple robots in a wide area which can be divided into multiple blocks. For a given block, a master beacon is designated to synchronize robots. By the access of the synchronization signal, each beacon in the selected group sends out an ultrasonic signal. When the robots in the block receive the ultrasonic signal, they can calculate their own locations based on the distances to the beacons, which are obtained by the multiplication of flight time and velocity of the ultrasonic signal. The efficiency of the algorithm is verified through the real experiments.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1599-1601
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• 1999

The characteristics of ultrasonic signal in insulation oil were investigated by optical fiber sensor(OFS) utilizing Mach-Zehnder interferometer. For checking the response properties of OFS ultrasonic signal was generated by function generator in various kinds of insulation oil. The attenuation of ultrasonic signal linearly increased with the increase of viscosity of insulation oil in log scale. Discharging signal was produced by neele-sphere electrode system. Intensity of discharging signal was plotted in terms of cumulative $y^2$ and the intensity of discharging signal in new oil was little bigger than that in serviced one.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.172-177
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• 2023

In this paper, 2-dimensional backtracking method for ultrasonic signals. Ultrasonic sensors are a common technology used in industrial fields as many studies have been conducted on distance measurement and indoor location tracking using transmission and reception devices in pairs. A method for tracking a signal of an arbitrary ultrasonic transmission device on a 2D plane using only a receiver of an ultrasonic signal is proposed. In order to track the ultrasonic signal, the receiver receives the signal by making at least three. The three receivers may calculate a direction and a distance using a time difference in which the ultrasound reception sound is reached. The existing method of tracking signal sources using ultrasonic waves has a problem of time synchronization of devices because the transceivers must be paired or installed independently for each sensor. In order to solve this problem, the distance of the ultrasonic receiver is minimized, and it is configured as one device. The sensor installed as one device may be processed by one operator, thereby solving the time synchronization problem. To increase time difference accuracy, high-speed 32-bit timers with high time resolution can be used to quickly calculate and track distances and directions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.467-469
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• 2001

This paper presents an efficient location estimation methodology for a partial discharge(PD) source in the power transformer. The methodology previously proposed is not suitable for locating a PD source because the ultrasonic signal with medium attenuated through the inner structure. In general, the propagation characteristic of ultrasonic signal with medium is different. Therefore, using this propagation characteristic, we can detect the location of PD source. In this paper, the proposal algorithm finds the PD source using three sensors attached to one side of the transformer without attenuation of the ultrasonic signal and applying the neural network based geometrical method. The proposed methodology demonstrates the effectiveness and validity on an experimental transformer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.359-364
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• 2004

This paper deals with the comparison of signal processing techniques of ultrasonic data. The goal of signal processing is the ultrasonic speckle suppression and the visibility enhancement of flaw-reflected ultrasonic echo. The performance of conventional SSP(split spectrum processing) method and the wavelet denoising method are compared and discussed for tested ultrasonic data. Tested ultrasonic data obtained from the weld area of centrifugal-casted stainless steel material and safe-ending material with holes and notch of variable depths are presented. In experimental results, the outputs of wavelet-based denoising method show the clear and sharp peaks at the positions of flaw-reflected echos comparing with those of SSP method.