Special Sessions and Technical Committee Tracks

"Industrial equipment health monitoring has attracted increasing attention in both academic and industrial communities. Dynamical changes in industrial equipment have to be captured in time for safe and reliable operations. These tasks are typically realized by using measurement technologies in combination with data analytics algorithms. Recent advances in the theory and methodology for measurement and data analytics have provided viable tools for dealing with the issue of industrial equipment health monitoring. This special session is seeking papers on recent research, development and applications in industrial equipment prognostic and health monitoring with theoretical and/or applied nature. Suitable topics for this special session include but are not limited to:

• New measurement methodology for equipment health monitoring
• Wireless sensor networks
• Multi-sensor fusion methodology for equipment health monitoring
• Advanced signal processing for equipment health monitoring
• Advanced time scale/frequency analysis
• Sparsity-assisted equipment health monitoring
• Machine learning for intelligent prognostic and health monitoring 
• Non-linear time series analysis 

"Wireless sensor networks are essential components to support Industry 4.0 operations in factories for process monitoring and control. Associated technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and edge technologies such as IEEE 1451 smart sensors and actuators make the concept of smart factory a reality. This is a multidisciplinary research field, through which it is possible to achieve significant progress. The availability of information enables manufacturers to optimize their processes quickly and efficiently. Through intelligent sensor networks, it is possible to acquire the necessary information for collaboration in various production processes. In this scenario, the adoption of wireless networks with a high number of nodes and some of them with energy usage restrictions, has given rise to the development of new energy harvesting methods and associated energy management mechanisms. On the other hand, the cooperation of various elements in the network is only possible if standards are adopted to promote device and system integration and interoperability. This special session aims to provide a forum for discussion that will attract scholars and industry practitioners to share and discuss latest advances in this scientific field. Topics in this session include, but are not limited to:

• Smart Sensor Digital Twin
• Measurements for sensor networks
• Smart sensors and transducers
• Low power wireless sensors
• Testing and simulation techniques for sensors
• Smart sensor modelling and design techniques
• Security issues in Sensor Networks
• Digital Calibration, E‐calibration and auto‐traceability
• Signal processing for Sensor Networks
• Parallel and distributed measurement systems
• Sensor reliability and maintenance
• New educational technologies for wireless sensing in Industry 4.0
• Standards, test, and certification in Sensor Networks - edge computing
• Smart Communication

The special session is promoted and supported by Domenico Capriglione TC-37 “Measurement & Networking” of IMS. The special session is promoted and supported by Kang Lee of TC-9 “Sensor Technology” of IMS. "

"This special session provides a platform for all researchers from academia, industries, government agents who are working on the development of sensors, instruments, and systems for the field data collection. The research activities on Envi-IoTs development and applications, such as the development of the algorithm for analyzing the collected field data, and the potential associated application of the collected data for filed change investigation, disaster monitoring/ forecasting, the disease-vectors survey, and many other applications are including into this special session. The main topics of the special session are

• The development of Physical/ Chemical/ Bio- Sensors for the field data collection;
• System integrating and validations;
• Volunteer-based distributing sensor system for Envi-IoT applications;
• Applications of robots and unmanned systems for field data collecting;
• Field data collecting, management, and identification;
• Applying artificial intelligent technologies for data analysis, classifications, modeling, and possible predication; The topics are not limited to the items mentioned previously; any subject and application associated with collecting and the application of the collected spatial/ time-domain data from the field which relate to human safety and sustainability are welcome. We also welcome researchers working on on-going projects on human safety and sustainability applications based on measurement data to share experiences on implementing Envi-IoT systems. "

The fundamental principles of "connectivity to all" and "connectivity with all" pose new and demanding challenges to communication systems and technologies. In a world where the possibility to have a broadband ubiquitous connection is a fundamental need, Countries where this possibility is not warranted risk to have many problems for their development. For instance, despite the very different application scenarios, broadband communication systems and industrial networks, both playing a very important role in the modern society, have compelling needs in terms of data, level of reliability, security and resilience.
To satisfy these requests, several solutions have been proposed, especially for wireless and large scale communications, like 4/5G mobile systems, IoT and-IIoT solutions, LPWANs and THz communications, just to mention few of the advanced technologies in the design and test stage.
Well-defined measurement methodologies are fundamental to avoid for example congestion and coexistence problems, resource usage efficiency issues and electromagnetic interference to ensure a very good Quality of Service (QoS) to the users. Therefore, measurements performed at different layers from physical to application of ISO/OSI stack and cross-layer analyses become fundamental for developers, testers, and users of such technologies and services. Furthermore, the pervasiveness of these emerging communication technologies make the human exposure to generated electromagnetic fields another impelling requirements, and well-accepted measurements procedure are required.
Unfortunately, accurate performance evaluations in real-world scenarios are often quite limited, if not missing at all.
This special session aims to bring together academic and industry professional to a session in which the most recent studies, implementations and proposal about the above-mentioned issues can be presented.
Fields of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Measurements on 5G;
• Measurements on IIoT networks
• Measurements for THz and millimeter wave communications;
• Measurements for computer and communication networks;
• Simulation, RF measurements, modeling and case studies in the Industrial Internet of Things;
• Analysis and monitoring of industrial communication traffic;
• Performance characterization of industrial distributed systems;
• Integration and coexistence of heterogeneous networks;
• IIoT architectures, protocols, and algorithms;
• Data management in IIoT;
• Cognitive radio development and measurements;
• Measurement for coexistence and interference analysis in wireless networks;
• Measurement on RF telecommunication systems, cellular networks and mobile terminals;
• Evaluation and assessment of human exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Unobtrusive monitoring systems and wearable technologies are rapidly evolving and their use in healthcare, exercise activity monitoring, and performance assessment is promising.
Wearable sensors and unobtrusive systems development have been fostered by a combination of advances in materials, fabrication techniques, electronic engineering, IoT technologies, wireless networks. Such systems may find application in the measurement of a range of physiological parameters and physical activity, in disparate scenarios and at different scopes. Papers dealing with research related to the following topics are welcome:

• Wearable sensing systems (including flexible and tattoo sensors and electronics)
• Unobtrusive sensing systems, techniques and methods
• Metrological characterization of wearable devices and unobtrusive monitoring systems
• Unobtrusive and wearable systems: prototypes and applications in medicine and sport science
• Sensor miniaturization and manufacturing techniques
• Data fusion or signal processing of body-related quantities
• Innovative applications and case studies

This Special Session represents an interesting opportunity for engineers and researchers who work in this area to meet and discuss about the state of the art, difficulties, innovations and improvements on instrumentation and measurement involved in components and system testing, fault diagnosis, condition monitoring, risk and safety assessment and management that allow to have more reliable devices.  These topics lead to advances in technology, instrumentation and procedures that could push forward laboratory and university capabilities to develop new testing and measurement methods and their validation, the cooperation with accreditation, inspection and certification providers, the increase of accuracy and compliance analysis, with a strong impact in the quality, reliability and safety delivered to the environment, citizens and customers on the global market.
Prospective authors can provide original contributions in this topic which can cover, but not only, the following aspects:

•  Instrumentation and measurement methods for Testing and Diagnostics (Destructive and Non-destructive Testing, Vibration monitoring, Built-in Test Equipment and Automatic Test Equipment, etc.)
•  Condition monitoring and maintenance of industrial process, plants and complex systems
•  Measurements and techniques for Fault detection and diagnosis
•  Design and implementation of laboratory tests (Reliability test, Environmental test, Burn-in test, Vibration test, etc.) and Qualification tests for components, assemblies and process
•  Measurements, methods and instrumentation for evaluation of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS), Risk assessment and management
•  Impact of RAMS requirements in the emerging technologies for Life and Society, environment and new energy sources
•  Effects of measurement uncertainty on the estimation of the RAMS parameters
•  Standards definition, certification and accreditation.
   

The ubiquitous diffusion of smart systems, required for the implementation of new ecologies, such Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, Precise Agriculture, to mention a few development directions, will pose challenges on the whole electronics cycle of life. On the one hand, sensing systems will be required for equipping electronics with sensing capabilities, on the other one, the invasion of virtually all environments with low-cost, or even, disposable electronics, requires using new materials and technologies.
At least three main aspects need to be considered, in search of such new sensors, transducers and conversion elements. We need low-cost and environmentally-safe raw materials, production strategies that both require low energy consumption and moderate release of pollutants in the environment, and finally, but not less important, resulting systems that can be recycled, or even better, biodegraded.
As a further aspect, the environmental fingerprint of the envisaged sensors needs to be carefully investigated, and new metrics need to be defined. We need a multidisciplinary approach where challenges mentioned above are investigated. The Special Session will be devoted to all the aspect of the life of sensors, transducers, and novel measurement systems, which are relevant to their environmental impact, from materials, to production step, and after-life fate. Submissions are welcome but not limited to the following topics:

• Sensors, transducers based on novel materials;
• Green electronics;
• Novel methods for sensing;
• Emerging technologies for sensors and sensing methods;
• Low-cost and low-energy based production processes;
• Green-chemistry for transducer fabrication;
• Additive or low-temperature production processes;
• Ink-jet based transducers;
• Polymer-based transducers;
• Paper and Bacterial Cellulose-based transducers;
• Low-power or non-battery based autonomous transducers;
• Disposable and biodegradable transducers;
• Models and simulations of green transducers;
• Environmental fingerprint of electronics and smart systems.

Assisted Technologies is a hot area having an everyday increasing strategic relevance given its impact on the economy and on the society. In this sector, sensors and sensing systems assume a role of primary importance. There is, in fact, an extremely vivid interest on this subject both in the scientific and in the industrial community. In spite of the numerous results available, there is still a large need for further research efforts and for novel solutions. In particular, multi-sensor platform and Wireless Sensors Networks hold the promise of being able to bring innovative contribution to this area being able to collect and transfer large sets of measurement data from several points thus realizing distributed and flexible measurement systems. We invite therefore original research papers on this subject with the goal to contribute to this area through a vibrant arena where novel ideas on converging subjects for the general topic of “Sensors and sensing system for Assistive Technology” will be confronted and exchanged between prominent actors in this field. Submissions are welcomed on (but not limited to):

• Review on the State of the Art on "Measurement systems and sensing solutions for Assistive Technology".
• Measurement methodologies and algorithms for Assistive Technologies, with particular regards to “Well Being” and “Active Ageing”.
• Multi-sensor architectures for Fall detection and Postural Instability monitoring.
•  Multi-sensor systems for Ambient Assisted Living and Activities of Daily Living monitoring.
• Smart textile solutions for AAL.
• • Measurement strategies for the assessment of Assistive Technologies.

Measurement systems for applications in condition monitoring, process tomography, indirect sensing, etc. have seen vast research in the last years. They are typically marked by an innovative application of instrumentation, electronics and signal processing techniques. Harsh environment refers to applications, which offer conditions like high temperature exposure, high ambient pressure, vibrations, abrasion effects, or dirt and pollution effects. Naturally, these conditions have influence on measurement systems leading to a degradation of the system performance due to drift effects, cross sensitivities, etc. The lab to field transition requires sophisticated countermeasures and design solutions.
The aim of this special session is to draw together researchers from academia and industry involved in the development of innovative measurement systems for applications in harsh environments. 
Original contributions on measurement systems in harsh environments, which can cover, but not only, the following aspects are welcome:

• Instrumentation for condition monitoring systems in harsh environments
• Advanced measurement systems for industrial process measurement
• Model based sensor design and signal processing techniques for harsh environments
• Application examples

Multichannel imaging is a key enabler for challenging imaging tasks in industry as well as science.  The upcoming new image sensor market brings the possibilities to capturing nearly all information which is coded in light, up to possible applications. Furthermore, these different features of light like spectral information, polarization, interference, coherence and others can be used together and offering more insights into the measuring object like a single channel can provide.

The Topics for the special session “Multichannel imaging for scientific and industrial applications” should be focused on

• Multispectral – hyperspectral imaging
• 5D-imaging
• Polarization imaging
• Multimodal imaging
• Multichannel Imaging Systems
• Characterization of multichannel imaging systems

Fiber optic sensors (FOSs) are gaining large acceptance for application in several branches of industry. These sensors allow the measurement of physical and chemical parameters employing a large number of working principles and configurations. FOSs have good metrological properties, they offer the possibility to implement distributed sensors and they are immune to electromagnetic interferences. These features make FOSs an emerging solution for the monitoring of parameters of interest in harsh environments.
In recent years, there have been a number of exciting developments that promise to make significant improvements to fiber optic sensing field. The aim of this special session is to survey the current FOSs state-of-the-art, as well as to provide a forum for reporting some of the significant recent advances in this field.
Lastly, the proposed session can be an opportunity of interaction for researchers working on the characterization of FOSs and on the development of technology, methods, instrumentations and applications of FOSs.

Papers reporting about research related to the following topics are welcome:

• FOSs from fundamentals properties and fabrication approaches to applications
• FOSs in specialty optical fibers
• Advanced FOSs-based mechanical and physical sensors
• Advanced FOSs-based biomedical, chemical and environmental sensors
• Integration and packaging of FOSs
• Performance of FOSs systems in real environments
• Specialized applications of FOSs in oil and gas industry, electric power system, aerospace missions, transport, civil structure, military defense, ocean exploration, biomedical detection, environmental monitoring and other areas
• Standardization efforts of FOSs for different industries and applications

Public safety requires comprehensive system engineering, especially in emergency response situations, where communication, visibility, and connectivity are extremely poor, and first responders must make life-and-death decisions in real-time. Emergency response scenarios often include firefighting, emergency medical calls, law enforcement, and cyber-physical crisis responses. The first responders need to sense the hazardous environment, while maintaining contact with teammates, navigating through obstacles, finding victims, diagnosing and triaging problems, and rescuing lives.
This needs thorough pre-incident planning, response simulation, real-time sensing and fusing, and navigating in extreme situations. Emerging technologies, such as affordable drones, 3D imaging systems, wearable sensors, and augmented reality goggles, provide opportunities to improve pre-incident planning and emergency response missions.
The special session is seeking papers on but not limited to the following topics:

• Sensor and sensing systems for emergency response
• 3D imaging technology for building survey
• Edge computing for emergency response
• Drones and other vehicles for public safety and emergency response
• Augmented reality for public safety
• Virtual reality for emergency response training and simulation
• Indoor navigation technology
• Indoor localization technology
• Ambient intelligence for public safety
• Human-system interfaces
• Haptic interfaces
• Gesture recognition in low-vision environments
• Voice recognition in noisy environments
• Thermal imaging and displays
• Floor plan based mapping, tagging, and navigation
• Heads-up display design (HUD) for extreme conditions

Autonomous sensors are increasingly gaining more attention in the research community, especially in the following areas: manufacturing, shipping, automotive industries, healthcare, agriculture, the military, sports, condition monitoring, safety, etc. These sensors are expected to be deployed in the application field and then operate for a long time without maintenance. However, this “set and forget” feature introduces enormous challenges, particularly in the design of the corresponding sensor interface electronics. These challenges are faced in both the sensor signal path and the sensor power line: reducing the power consumption of the read-out circuits, improving the efficiency of the power converters, increasing the robustness, reducing the susceptibility to external interference and wireless communication, etc. In addition, the wide variety of sensors and sensing principles has resulted in an equally varied number of sensor interface solutions, which in many cases are application-specific.

Considering the above-mentioned challenges, this special session focuses on advanced interface circuits for autonomous sensors. The manuscripts submitted should present sensor interface circuits with advances in terms of accuracy, self-calibration, energy consumption, efficiency, cost, noise, interference insensitivity, reliability, among others. Circuits and/or techniques applicable to different types of sensors (resistive, capacitive, inductive, optical, etc.) monitoring different physical and chemical quantities (vibration, temperature, pressure, light, etc.) are expected.

A growing number of application domains follow the smart trend, increasing the awareness of the system's condition, its context, or its capability for decision making, through the integration of smart sensor and measurement systems. In many of these applications, infrastructures for data communication, data processing, and electrical power delivery are non-existent. These applications, instead, require smartness to be realized through self-contained systems. The technical development in sensor devices, microcontrollers, and wireless transceivers has enabled many of such systems. Limited energy, however, is still a hinder to their fully autonomous operation. With this, the demand for systems with near-zero energy consumption, or a net-zero energy budget, is increasing. For this session, we welcome submissions on, but not limited to:

• Low-energy sensing and measurement techniques
• Energy saving techniques and power management in sensor systems
• Adaptive or context-aware duty cycling
• Online measurement of energy intake and consumption
• Energy-efficient data processing and data analysis
• Machine learning on low-power microcontrollers
• Modeling, design and optimization of energy harvesting transducers
• Tools and design support for implementations of energy harvesting systems
• System integration with focus on low energy consumption
• Battery-less sensor and measurement systems
• Experiences from real-world and innovative applications

Near field electromagnetic (NFEM) sensors are based on the effects that material properties and geometry of nearby objects or processes have on the electromagnetic field in the near field region. They find their use in a vast number of sensing applications thanks to their non-intrusiveness, sensitivity, simple construction and robustness. Because NFEM sensors operate in the near field region they impose complicated relationships between measured quantities (field strength, induced voltage or impedance) and inspected properties (spatial distribution of electromagnetic properties, dimensions, defects, etc.). Innovations such as new magnetic materials and sensors, flexible sensor arrays, eddy current thermography and RFID sensing are broadening the application areas of the NFEM sensing and imaging. These include defence and safety (e.g. humanitarian demining), civil infrastructure and transportation (e.g. inspection of railways or reinforced concrete), precision agriculture and waste management (e.g. soil sensing), energy (e.g. pipeline integrity), etc.
Computationally efficient models and fast inversion methods are required to exploit full informational potential of these sensors and to speed up the design phase of a NFEM sensing and imaging system. A significant effort is being put into the research of NFEM sensors designs, e.g. application of novel magneto-resistive materials, advanced induction coils, or deployment of sensor arrays. The advancements in sensor interfaces and instrumentation ensure faster, more sensitive and robust signal acquisition even in harsh industrial environment. Novel signal processing algorithms are being deployed to suppress adverse influential factors such as lift-off, wobble, drift and noise, or to extract pattern features required for further analysis and interpretation. Finally, with the aim to assist the human operators in dealing with the vast amount of data even from a single inspection run, the automatic analysis and interpretation algorithms are being developed using machine learning approaches.
The prospective authors are invited to contribute to this special session with their research results in all aspects of near field electromagnetic sensing and imaging, and their applications. Submissions are welcome but not limited to the following topics:

• Computational electromagnetics for NFEM sensing
• Novel NFEM sensors
• New materials for NFEM sensors and sensor arrays
• Electromagnetic imaging and reconstruction
• Inversion methods for NFEM sensing
• RFID sensors and intelligent monitoring
• Novel applications of NFEM sensing and imaging

Software Define Radios (SDR) have become very important tools in the field of communications in both research and practical applications as they offer fast reconfigurability without the need for hardware modifications. Their architecture comprising fast analog to digital converters, a versatile digital signal processing unit frequently based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and fast digital to analog converters is also applicable to many instrumentation and measurement (I&M) tasks. Thus, their versatility makes the use of SDRs very attractive also for I&M topics. Furthermore, powerful and feature-rich software environments both in the commercial and the open source domain are available. Consequently, it is not very surprising that the number of papers addressing SDR in I&M has recently significantly increased.
This special session aims to bring researchers in the field together to further discuss on how SDRs and SDR frameworks can be effectively utilized for I&M and which I&M specific extensions would be of interest.
Submissions are welcome but not limited to the following topics on SDRs in

• Real time localization and pose estimation
• Radar, LiDAR, GPS etc.
• Impedance measurement systems
• Material characterization
• Capacitance measurement systems
• Inductance measurement systems
• Multichannel measurement systems
• Phase, Frequency and Jitter estimation
• Power measurement
• Wireless sensors
• Lock-in amplifiers
• Automated test beds
• Spread spectrum techniques in measurement and instrumentation
• Network-, spectrum- and signal analyzers
• Signal generation for measurement systems
• Surface Acoustic Wave sensing
• EMC testing
• I&M education

This special session aims to offer a point of convergence for the different streams pertaining to Tactile and Proximity Sensing, which can be found in today’s research and technology landscape. In consumer electronics and entertainment, touch technologies are ubiquitous and recently, touchless technologies are becoming increasingly popular and can be found in many infotainment systems in cars, for example. In Robotics, we expect that Tactile and Proximity Sensing technologies will play an essential role for service and Industrial Robotics as well as for Human-Robot Collaboration and compliant robotics applications in the near future. On the one hand, designs of robotic graspers that include both Tactile and Proximity Sensors allow for novel control strategies for exploration, grasping and manipulation. On the other hand, the sensors will allow safety features to fulfill leading technical specifications such as ISO/TS 15066 for the operation of collaborative robots and improve the autonomy and perception of robotic systems in all fields.
With this proposal we want to follow up a workshop series started in 2018 at IEEE IROS (Homepage: https://www.proxelsandtaxels.org) to further bridge the gap between the Instrumentation and Measurement community IEEE IMS and the Robotics community IEEE RAS to foster the research and development of novel sensor technologies for tactile and proximity perception in the domains of consumer electronics and Robotics.
To summarize, the objectives of the special session are:

• Further establish the community working on Tactile and Proximity Perception
• Introducing the field of Proximity Perception to the general audience of the instrumentation and measurement community
• Bridging from Tactile Perception to Proximity Perception
• Providing a forum for the community to exchange ideas, knowledge and establish new collaborations with researchers and industrial partners

Topics of interest include all aspects of tactile and proximity sensing for robotics related to:

• Proximity Sensors
• Multi-modal Sensors (tactile, shear, vibration, etc.)
• Sensor Calibration
• Tactile Sensors
• Robotic Skins (architectures)
• Application Domains for Tactile and Proximity Sensors
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Human-Robot Collaboration
• Preshaping and Grasping
• Haptic Exploration
• Assistive Robots
• Prosthetics
• Collision Avoidance
• Teleoperation with Proximity Sensing
• Intuitive Robot Programming, Human-Robot Interface
• Multi-Modal Control
• Sensor Fusion
• Underwater Robotics
• Bridging from Tactile Perception to Proximity Perception
• Bio-inspired Robotics

Intrabody communication (IBC) technology, also known as human-centric or human body communication (HBC), is an emerging wireless communication technology which can be used in body area networks. In IBC system the human body is used as a part of a communication channel between the transmitters and receivers placed on the surface of the skin, in its vicinity, or implanted inside the user’s body. Two main methods of intrabody communication are galvanic and capacitive coupling. Possible applications of IBC BANs are broad: from biotelemetry and medicine, where IBC devices also contain physiological sensors, to the communication between various electronic devices and security systems.
The aim of this special section is to bring together researchers involved in the field of IBC in order to discuss state-of-the art and open issues in measurements and instrumentation used for IBC channel characterization, IBC system modeling, analysis of influential parameters, and development of IBC prototypes.

The prospective authors are invited to contribute to this special session with original and review papers. Submissions are welcome but are not limited to the following topics:

• Measurements of IBC transmission characteristics,
• Modeling of IBC channels
• IBC interface design
• Physiological sensor design and signal processing
• Wireless capsule endoscopy
• Implanted IBC devices
• Applications of intrabody communication
• Low power body area networks
• Security and privacy in body area networks
• BAN interference analysis and mitigation, reliability, quality of service, coexistence issues

Many industries with high impact in our lives and on the world’s economy require increasing implementation of nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) techniques. The emergence of new materials and the variety of environments make NDT&E one of the fastest-growing technologies from the standpoint of uniqueness and innovation. NDT&E provides a means to detect and characterize damage and irregularities in materials. It requires retrieving critical information through sensing technologies and information processing and advances in the field are often driven by innovations in electronic instrumentation and measurement. This special session aims to promote the advancement of measurement methods and instrumentation that support NDT&E, condition monitoring, diagnostic engineering and structural health monitoring (SHM). It will offer an excellent opportunity to bring together experts from industry, research and academic institutions to discuss and share methods, systems, and devices for NDT&E and foster future
collaborations.

The topics will cover but are not limited to:

• Integration of NDT and structural health monitoring (SHM) for predictive maintenance;
• Methods and devices to optimize the performance of existing NDT techniques;
• NDT for permanent monitoring including embedded sensors;
• Innovative industrial applications of NDT&E NDT signal processing, data analysis and data fusion;
• Reliability of NDT&E;
• NDT standard development;
• NDT&E in civil engineering;
• NDT system powered by industrial IoT;
• NDT and industry 4.0

Emerging Needs in NDE for Aerospace Applications

K. Elliott Cramer
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, VA 23681

The desire to nondestructively determine the quality and integrity of materials and structures has a long history in the aerospace industry. The use of composite materials continues to increase in the aerospace community due to the potential benefits of reduced weight, increased strength, and manufacturability. Additionally, recent advances in additive manufacturing of metallic materials has resulted in the ability to rapidly produce critical parts. A key to the successful deployment of advanced manufacturing techniques and new materials is the simultaneous development of nondestructive evaluation techniques that can characterize a wide range of potential defects that may occur during manufacturing and throughout the lifetime of the parts. This paper will summarize of some of the emerging inspection challenges associated with both composites and metallic additive manufactured parts. Additionally, NDE technologies being developed at NASA to meet these challenges will be discussed. The approaches presented include investigation of conventional, guided wave, and phase sensitive ultrasonic methods, infrared thermography and x-ray CT techniques for NDE. Finally, use of simulation tools for optimizing and validating NDE approaches will be discussed.

BIO: 

Mr. Cramer joined NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in 1989 as an Aerospace Technologist in the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch (NESB). In January 2011, he became branch head of NESB where he provides strategic leadership and technical guidance for a team of 25 researchers in the development of novel nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques in support of the NASA missions in space operations, exploration and aeronautics. During his career Mr. Cramer has also completed Headquarters detail assignments in the Office of the Chief Engineer and the Office of the NASA Administrator. Mr. Cramer’s research is in the field of thermal nondestructive inspection techniques, most recently leading to the successful development and implementation of an in situ inspection system to detect manufacturing defects during automatic fiber placement of carbon fiber composites. He has led NASA, industry, university and government agency teams to implement NDE systems for a variety of NASA programs including the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, the X-37, and the Aircraft Aging and Durability Project. Mr. Cramer holds 14 U.S. patents on various inventions, including NASA’s Ultrasonic Wire Crimp Inspection Technology, winner of the 2009 NASA Government Invention of the Year Award. He is a recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including a NASA’s Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, the NASA Space Flight Awareness Award (Silver Snoopy) and an Outstanding Leadership Medal and an R&D 100 Award. Mr. Cramer has authored more than 85 conference and journal publications. Mr. Cramer hold a B.S. in Physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Applied Science from the College of William and Mary.