# US 11,029,290 B2 · Device and method for the automatic calculation of a TCG curve > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,029,290 B2 - Document ID: US11029290B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/777,165 - Filed: 2016-11-22 - Published: 2018-11-15 - Granted: 2021-06-08 - Earliest claimed: 2015-11-23 - Assignees: Airbus SAS - Applicants: Airbus SAS - Inventors: Frank Guibert - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11029290B2 ## CPC - G01N 29/4463: {Signal correction, e.g. distance amplitude correction [DAC], distance gain size [DGS], noise filtering} - G01N 29/07: by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves - G01N 29/2493: {Wheel shaped probes} - G01N 29/262: {by electronic orientation or focusing, e.g. with phased arrays (phased arrays per se G10K11/34)} - G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q) ## Abstract A method for the automatic calculation of a distance-amplitude correction curve for a non-destructive ultrasonic testing system, the system comprising an ultrasound sensor and a reference part. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring a large number of measuring points uniformly distributed over the entire surface of the reference part and classifying, unsupervised, the acquisition points. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for automatically calculating a distance - amplitude correction curve for an ultrasound-based non-destructive testing system used to determine the thickness of a component or discontinuities of its composition, the system comprising an ultrasound sensor and a reference component, the method comprising: acquiring “flight time / amplitude” pairs, termed acquisition points, for a large number of measurement points distributed over a surface of the reference component, classifying, unsupervised, the acquisition points, wherein this step comprises an automatic grouping of the acquisition points group-wise, each group corresponding to a thickness of the reference component, determining, for each group, a generic “flight time, amplitude” pair, and constructing the distance - amplitude correction curve by calculating a gain required in order for a value of an amplitude of each group to be equal to a predetermined target value. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the measurement points are uniformly distributed over a whole surface of the reference component. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which a vector used for the grouping comprising at least one of the following quantities: amplitude, flight time, one or more positioning coordinates. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method as claimed in claim 3, in which the automatic grouping of the acquisition points group-wise implements an algorithm of K-Means type. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which a mathematical scheme for determining a position of each chosen generic pair forms part of the following nonlimiting list: position of a “centroid” arising from the classification, occurrence maximum of a histogram, Gaussian Kernel Density Estimation, fit of a Gaussian kernel, mean value, median value. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which, in the determining step, there is carried out for each group an estimation of a dispersion of the pairs of the group according to the two dimensions flight time and amplitude. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which, in the constructing step, the values of amplitude and of flight time are reconverted into physical units if the latter have been normalized prior to the classification step. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, furthermore comprising a step in which there is carried out an iteration which uses, during a phase of acquisition of an iteration of rank N, the distance - amplitude correction calculated at iteration N-1, end-of-iteration criterion being affected on at least one of a number of clusters found or a number of iterations performed. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which, in the case of an ultrasound sensor, results of all shots are combined so as to obtain a single curve of distance - amplitude correction applied to all the shots of the ultrasound sensor. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method as claimed in claim 1, in which, in the case of ultrasound sensors, an independent distance - amplitude correction curve is calculated for each shot. ### Claim 11 A method for automatically calculating a distance - amplitude correction curve for an ultrasound-based non-destructive testing system used to determine the thickness of a component or discontinuities of its composition, the system comprising an ultrasound sensor and a reference component, the method comprising: acquiring “flight time / amplitude” pairs, termed acquisition points, for a large number of measurement points distributed over a surface of the reference component, classifying, unsupervised, the acquisition points, wherein this step comprises an automatic grouping of the acquisition points group-wise, each group corresponding to a thickness of the reference component; determining, for each group, a generic “flight time, amplitude” pair, and constructing the distance - amplitude correction curve by calculating a gain required in order for a value of an amplitude of each group to be equal to a predetermined target value, and furthermore comprising a step in which an iteration is carried out by decreasing or increasing a gain of each point of the distance - amplitude correction curve at each iteration until one obtains a sufficiently small variation of the amplitude of the points of the distance - amplitude correction curve between two successive iterations according to a previously chosen convergence criterion.