Automatic weld defect detection method based on Kalman filtering for real-time radiographic inspection of spiral pipe

A method based on Kalman filtering is proposed for weld defect detection in real-time radiographic NDT of spiral pipes. The existence of the image noises and the inhomogeneity of the background contrast induce numerous false alarms. In this paper, the trajectory continuity of the defects in the image sequence is detected by Kalman filtering for the identification of true defects. Potential defect regions without continuous motion are considered as false alarms and are eliminated. Experiments are performed to demonstrate the adaptability of the proposed method. The robustness of the method is also verified under unstable detection velocity.