TY - JOUR A1 - Kästner, L. A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Jonietz, Florian A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Lambrecht, J. T1 - Classification of Spot-Welded Joints in Laser Thermography Data Using Convolutional Neural Networks N2 - Spot welding is a crucial process step in various industries. However, classification of spot welding quality is still a tedious process due to the complexity and sensitivity of the test material, which drain conventional approaches to its limits. In this article, we propose an approach for quality inspection of spot weldings using images from laser thermography data. We propose data preparation approaches based on the underlying physics of spot-welded joints, heated with pulsed laser thermography by analyzing the intensity over time and derive dedicated data filters to generate training datasets. Subsequently, we utilize convolutional neural networks to classify weld quality and compare the performance of different models against each other. We achieve competitive results in terms of classifying the different welding quality classes compared to traditional approaches, reaching an accuracy of more than 95 percent. Finally, we explore the effect of different augmentation methods. KW - Active thermal imaging KW - Laser thermography KW - Spot-welded joints KW - Convolutional neural network KW - Classification KW - Data processing PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-524216 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3063672 VL - 9 SP - 48303 EP - 48312 AN - OPUS4-52421 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Thummerer, G. A1 - Breitwieser, S. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Multi-dimensional reconstruction of internal defects in additively manufactured steel using photothermal super resolution combined with virtual wave based image processing N2 - We combine three different approaches to greatly enhance the defect reconstruction ability of active thermographic testing. As experimental approach, laser-based structured illumination is performed in a step-wise manner. As an intermediate signal processing step, the virtual wave concept is used in order to effectively convert the notoriously difficult to solve diffusion-based inverse problem into a somewhat milder wavebased inverse problem. As a final step, a compressed-sensing based optimization procedure is applied which efficiently solves the inverse problem by making advantage of the joint sparsity of multiple blind measurements. To evaluate our proposed processing technique, we investigate an additively manufactured stainless steel sample with eight internal defects. The concerted super resolution approach is compared to conventional thermographic reconstruction techniques and shows an at least four times better spatial resolution. KW - Active thermography KW - Additive manufacturing KW - Stainless steel KW - ADMM KW - Block regularization KW - Internal defects KW - Joint sparsity KW - Laser excitation KW - Multi-dimensional reconstruction KW - Photothermal super resolution KW - Virtual waves PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-525330 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2021.3054411 SN - 1551-3203 SN - 1941-0050 VL - 17 IS - 11 SP - 7368 EP - 7378 PB - IEEE CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-52533 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Zalameda, J. N. ED - Mendioroz, A. T1 - Full-frame thermographic super-resolution with 2D-structured laser heating N2 - Thermographic super-resolution techniques allow the resolution of defects/inhomogeneities beyond the classical limit, which is governed by the diffusion properties of thermal wave propagation. Photothermal super-resolution is based on a combination of an experimental scanning strategy and a numerical optimization which has been proven to be superior to standard thermographic methods in the case of 1D linear defects. In this contribution, we report on the extension of this approach towards a full frame 2D photothermal super-resolution technique. The experimental approach is based on a repeated spatially structured heating using high power lasers. In a second post-processing step, several measurements are coherently combined using mathematical optimization and taking advantage of the (joint) sparsity of the defects in the sample. In our work we extend the possibilities of the method to efficiently detect and resolve defect cross sections with a fully 2D-structured blind illumination. T2 - Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIII CY - Online meeting DA - 12.04.2021 KW - Thermography KW - super-resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Image resolution PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2586093 VL - 11743 SP - 11743-26, 10 PB - SPIE AN - OPUS4-52524 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Kimata, M. ED - Shaw, J. A. ED - Valenta, C. R. T1 - Investigations on photothermal super resolution reconstruction using 2D-structured illumination patterns N2 - Active thermography as a nondestructive testing modality suffers greatly from the limitations imposed by the diffusive nature of heat conduction in solids. As a rule of thumb, the detection and resolution of internal defects/inhomogeneities is limited to a defect depth to defect size ratio greater than or equal to one. Earlier, we demonstrated that this classical limit can be overcome for 1D and 2D defect geometries by using photothermal laser-scanning super resolution. In this work we report a new experimental approach using 2D spatially structured illumination patterns in conjunction with compressed sensing and computational imaging methods to significantly decrease the experimental complexity and make the method viable for investigating larger regions of interest. T2 - Future Sensing Technologies Conference 2021 CY - Online meeting DA - 15.11.2021 KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Image resolution PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2603838 VL - 11914 SP - 124 EP - 131 PB - International Society for Optics and Photonics. SPIE AN - OPUS4-53745 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Mendioroz, A. ED - Avdelidis, N. P. T1 - Thermographic testing using 2D pseudo-random illumination and photothermal super resolution reconstruction N2 - Due to the diffusive nature of heat propagation in solids, the detection and resolution of internal defects with active thermography based non-destructive testing is commonly limited to a defect-depth-to-defect-size ratio greater than or equal to one. In the more recent past, we have already demonstrated that this limitation can be overcome by using a spatially modulated illumination source and photothermal super resolution-based reconstruction. Furthermore, by relying on compressed sensing and computational imaging methods we were able to significantly reduce the experimental complexity to make the method viable for investigating larger regions of interest. In this work we share our progress on improving the defect/inhomogeneity characterization using fully 2D spatially structured illumination patterns instead of scanning with a single laser spot. The experimental approach is based on the repeated blind pseudo-random illumination using modern projector technology and a high-power laser. In the subsequent post-processing, several measurements are then combined by taking advantage of the joint sparsity of the defects within the sample applying 2D-photothermal super resolution reconstruction. Here, enhanced nonlinear convex optimization techniques are utilized for solving the underlying ill-determined inverse problem for typical simple defect geometries. As a result, a higher resolution defect/inhomogeneity map can be obtained at a fraction of the measurement time previously needed. T2 - Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIV CY - Orlando, Florida, USA DA - 05.04.2022 KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Material testing KW - Internal defects KW - DMD KW - DLP PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2618562 SN - 0277-786X VL - 12109 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - SPIE AN - OPUS4-54909 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Kästner, L. A1 - Hauffen, Jan Christian A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Photothermal-SR-Net: A customized deep unfolding neural network for photothermal super resolution imaging N2 - This article presents deep unfolding neural networks to handle inverse problems in photothermal radiometry enabling super-resolution (SR) imaging. The photothermal SR approach is a well-known technique to overcome the spatial resolution limitation in photothermal imaging by extracting high-frequency spatial components based on the deconvolution with the thermal point spread function (PSF). However, stable deconvolution can only be achieved by using the sparse structure of defect patterns, which often requires tedious, handcrafted tuning of hyperparameters and results in computationally intensive algorithms. On this account, this article proposes Photothermal-SR-Net, which performs deconvolution by deep unfolding considering the underlying physics. Since defects appear sparsely in materials, our approach includes trained block-sparsity thresholding in each convolutional layer. This enables to super-resolve 2-D thermal images for nondestructive testing (NDT) with a substantially improved convergence rate compared to classic approaches. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated on various deep unfolding and thresholding approaches. Furthermore, we explored how to increase the reconstruction quality and the computational performance. Thereby, it was found that the computing time for creating high-resolution images could be significantly reduced without decreasing the reconstruction quality by using pixel binning as a preprocessing step. KW - Deep unfolding KW - Defect reconstruction KW - Elastic net KW - Inverse problems KW - Iterative shrinkage thresholding KW - Neural network KW - Nondestructive testing (NDT) KW - Photothermal imaging KW - Super resolution (SR) KW - Thermography PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/tim.2022.3154803 SN - 1557-9662 VL - 71 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - IEEE AN - OPUS4-54678 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hauffen, J. C. A1 - Kästner, L. A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Learned block iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm for photothermal super resolution imaging N2 - Block-sparse regularization is already well known in active thermal imaging and is used for multiple-measurement-based inverse problems. The main bottleneck of this method is the choice of regularization parameters which differs for each experiment. We show the benefits of using a learned block iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (LBISTA) that is able to learn the choice of regularization parameters, without the need to manually select them. In addition, LBISTA enables the determination of a suitable weight matrix to solve the underlying inverse problem. Therefore, in this paper we present LBISTA and compare it with state-of-the-art block iterative shrinkage thresholding using synthetically generated and experimental test data from active thermography for defect reconstruction. Our results show that the use of the learned block-sparse optimization approach provides smaller normalized mean square errors for a small fixed number of iterations. Thus, this allows us to improve the convergence speed and only needs a few iterations to generate accurate defect reconstruction in photothermal super-resolution imaging. KW - Thermography KW - Laser KW - Machine learning KW - Optimization KW - Non-destructive testing KW - NDT KW - Neural network KW - Defect reconstruction KW - Block-sparsity KW - Active thermal imaging KW - Regularization KW - Laser thermography PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-554598 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22155533 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 15 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-55459 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Thermographic detection of internal defects using 2D photothermal super resolution reconstruction with sequential laser heating N2 - Thermographic photothermal super resolution reconstruction enables the resolution of internal defects/inhomogeneities below the classical limit, which is governed by the diffusion properties of thermal wave propagation. Based on a combination of the application of special sampling strategies and a subsequent numerical optimization step in post-processing, thermographic super resolution has already proven to be superior to standard thermographic methods in the detection of one-dimensional defect/inhomogeneity structures. In our work, we report an extension of the capabilities of the method for efficient detection and resolution of defect cross sections with fully two-dimensional structured laser-based heating. The reconstruction is carried out using one of two different algorithms that are proposed within this work. Both algorithms utilize the combination of several coherent measurements using convex optimization and exploit the sparse nature of defects/inhomogeneities as is typical for most nondestructive testing scenarios. Finally, the performance of each algorithm is rated on reconstruction quality and algorithmic complexity. The presented experimental approach is based on repeated spatially structured heating by a high power laser. As a result, a two-dimensional sparse defect/inhomogeneity map can be obtained. In addition, the obtained results are compared with those of conventional thermographic inspection methods that make use of homogeneous illumination. Due to the sparse nature of the reconstructed defect/inhomogeneity map, this comparison is performed qualitatively. KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Internal defects PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548351 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0088102 SN - 1089-7550 VL - 131 IS - 18 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - AIP Publishing AN - OPUS4-54835 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Influence of the number of measurements on detecting internal defects using photothermal super resolution reconstruction with random pixel patterns N2 - In this work, the limits of using spatially structured heating combined with subsequent photothermal super resolution reconstruction for the thermographic detection and resolution of internal defects are investigated. The approach is based on the application of modern high-power laser projector technology, which is used to repeatedly project varying spatially structured 2D pixel patterns to photothermally heat the object under test. After processing the generated thermographic data using nonlinear convex optimisation in conjunction with exploiting the joint-sparse nature of the defect signals within the individual measurements, a high-resolution 2D-sparse defect/inhomogeneity map is obtained. The main focus of the investigation is set on the influence of the number of individual measurements on the achievable reconstruction quality. Using numerical simulations based on an analytical representation of the forward solution to the underlying inverse problem, the convergence rate over performed measurements of the achievable reconstruction quality is determined. Finally, all findings are experimentally validated by reconstructing a set of internal defects in an additively manufactured sample. In this work, it is shown that for a variety of different defect separation distances, the projection of 50 different pixel patterns allows for a good trade-off between experimental complexity and reconstruction quality. KW - Super resolution KW - Digital micromirror device KW - Digital light processing KW - Internal defects PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/17686733.2023.2223392 SN - 2116-7176 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Taylor & Francis AN - OPUS4-57778 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Pech May, Nelson Wilbur A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Robot-assisted infrared thermography for surface breaking crack detection on complex shaped components N2 - Infrared thermography using a focused (spot or line) beam has proved to be effective for detection of surface breaking cracks on planar samples. In this work, we use the same principle, but applied to complex shaped components, like a rail section, a gear, and a gas turbine blade. We use a six-axis robot arm to move the sample in front of our thermographic setup. Several scanning paths and thermographic parameters are explored: scanning speed, density of points in each scanning slice, laser power and camera frame-rate. Additionally, we explore semi-automatic evaluation algorithms for crack detection, as well as 2D-to-3D registration of the found indications. T2 - SPIE Future Sensing Technologies, 2023 CY - Yokohama, Japan DA - 18.04.2023 KW - Complex shaped component testing KW - Flying line thermography KW - Robot-assisted thermography KW - Crack detection KW - Robot path planning KW - 2D/3D thermographic registration PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2666757 VL - 12327 SP - 1 EP - 3 PB - SPIE Future Sensing Technologies AN - OPUS4-59867 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -