Three-dimensional non-destructive testing (NDT) in the infrared spectrum

Three-dimensional (3D) vision scanning for metrology and inspection applications is an area that knows an increasing interest in the industry. This interest is driven by the recent advances in 3D technologies, permitting to attain high precision measurements at an affordable cost. 3D vision allows for the modelling and inspection of the visible surface of objects. When it is necessary to detect subsurface defects, active infrared (IR) thermography is one of the most used tools today for non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials. Fusion of these two modalities allows the simultaneous detection of surface and subsurface defects and to visualize these defects overlaid on a 3D model of the scanned and modelled parts or their 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models. In this work, we present a framework for automatically fusing 3D data (scanned or CAD) with the infrared thermal images for an NDT process in 3D space.