West Bengal: IIT Kharagpur has proven its Tryst with Innovation with its latest dominant supremacy in the field of Artificial Intelligence with two ground breaking projects on AI-enabled non-destructive testing for weld defect analysis, from Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (CoEAMT), IIT Kharagpur led by Prof Surjya K Pal, Chairperson, Centre of Excellence in Advance Manufacturing. These two innovative solutions have been shortlisted by TATA STEEL for “TechEx 2024” exhibition.

The first, “iWeld, an AI-enabled NDT” software is an innovative solution developed for Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) Kolkata, Ministry of Defence. iWeld is designed to identify, localise and classify different types of weld defects, such as blowhole, wormhole, porosity, lack of fusion, and inclusion, from radiography images with remarkable accuracy. The performance of the iWeld has been certified by the Indian Register of Shipping (No: 2023PC001, Dated: 9th Aug 2023). This was also recently shortlisted as one of the four innovations from IIT Kharagpur which were showcased at “IInventiv 2024” – the first-of-its-kind, mega R&D fair, where all IITs, NITs and other top Institutions in the country participated to show case the their cutting-edge innovations in R&D.

The ability of iWeld to enhance the quality and efficiency of weld inspections has marked it as a truly successful product, standing as a testament to successful collaboration between CoEAMT and GRSE. Jointly copyrighted with GRSE, iWeld is now primed for commercialisation. Avishek Mukherjee, a Doctoral Scholar in Advanced Technology Development Centre, has devoted considerable effort and dedication to bring about this development.

“Recently, this has also been selected and showcased by the mega technical Event, IInventiv 2024, organised by MoE at IIT Hyderabad. This software is already certified by Indian Register of Shipping, and has been handed over to GRSE for daily operational usage with human-like accuracy. This software has been jointly copyrighted with GRSE as well. It is a product with TRL:8/9. GRSE and CoEAMT will now jointly go ahead for commercialisation at other industrial ends. AI-enabled NDT for auto evaluation of weld defects from Ultrasound data: This project is being funded by TIH. It has already been filed for patent. A group of students at CoEAMT are planning to spin-off soon with these AI-enabled NDT solutions for weld defect analyses. Our students are doing wonderful job. Their success for solving perennial industrial problems is awesome. The credit goes to the interns and scholars,” said Prof S K Pal, Chairperson, CoEAMT.

The second solution, “iToFD“, under a project funded by (TiH) of IIT Kharagpur, revolutionises the detection and sizing of weld defects using ultrasonic time-of-flight diffraction (ToFD) data. This cutting-edge system integrates advanced signal processing with AI algorithms for precise defect localisation and measurement. This automated solution, patented recently (Patent filed ref no: 202331060331), is nearly 15 times faster than traditional manual inspections. A K Vishwanathan, Undergraduate student in Chemistry; Sarvan Kumar Singh, Undergraduate student in Chemical Engineering; Ananta Dutta, Doctoral Scholar in Mechanical Engineering, and Avishek Mukherjee, Doctoral Scholar in Advanced Technology Development Centre are diligently contributing to this project.

“The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur is geared up in solving various perennial problems of the industries through deployment of artificial intelligence, and Industry 4.0 concepts.   I am extremely happy to see the passion of students associated with the CoEAMT while working with the industries, at this stage of their lives, providing innovative solutions. They shine with a profound grasp of industrial challenges. CoEAMT is open to induct more students and train them to take up interesting and challenging industrial problems, and solve them,” added Prof Pal.