The two main categories of NASA applications are in support of in house R&D, and in the inspection of structures for NASA applications by NASA or its suppliers. The NDEInverter software will provide a set of tools or workbox enabling the power user to setup an inversion solver for a problem of interest. One can envision using development specimens, calibration specimens, and forward models to populate a "truth" table for the specific problem of interest. This would be followed by a defined process for data reduction using classifier and GLM techniques contained in the NDEInverter software using the available open source libraries. Finally, new data would be input to the software, and the Kriging algorithm from AeroMatter would be executed seamlessly. For low rate or one-off production, or R&D applications typical of NASA use this will be a less formal process, and many options or even source code in Python may be exposed. In a higher rate production environment this may be sold as a software as a service model, with an initial investment in the setup of the specifics for the problem, followed by a license or even a pay as you go model using cloud services to take full advantage of HPC. We do anticipate the NDEInverter would be one of the family of tools in the TRI/Austin NDEToolbox software.
The inversion software has direct applicability to commercial and military aerospace manufacturers who build and inspect large composite structures with stringent defect requirements. Even sub-rejectable defects are of interest in production as they are often indicative of a process variation issue, and better characterization of defects allows better response by the production team. After parts are manufactured, defective parts that are expensive are referred to a materials or manufacturing review board (MRB) for disposition. These decisions could be made better with improved understanding of the characteristics of a defect. Finally, components are inspected inservice. Similar to the MRB problem, better inspection and repair/or replacement decisions can be made by improved characterization of defects. TRI/Austin has an excellent record of SBIR transition success and works to begin the transition to market early on in the SBIR effort. Recently, TRI/Austin was awarded a Tibbetts award, which honors a small number of SBIR/STTR program participants and supports that have created a significant economic or social impact through the use of SBIR/STTR funding.
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