Expanding the Potential of Nondestructive Testing with Cloud Integration: Latest Technologies Connecting Field and Office

Purpose of Nondestructive Testing and On-site Challenges

Nondestructive testing (NDT: Non-Destructive Testing) is an inspection technique for examining internal defects and degradation without destroying the target object. It is widely used across industries, from social infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels to factory piping and tanks, and even power plant and plant equipment. Its purpose is to ensure the quality and safety of products and structures and to prevent serious accidents or failures before they occur. By detecting small flaws (defects) early through regular inspections and tests, repairs or replacements can be made at the appropriate time, improving equipment reliability—NDT truly serves as an unseen pillar supporting public safety.

However, on-site NDT faces various challenges in organizing inspection data and reporting tasks. Traditionally, many inspectors wrote results on paper checklists at the site, saved photos on separate cameras or smartphones, and returned to the office to create reports. Such manual workflows tend to produce data recording errors and delays in information sharing. As a result, anomalies may be overlooked or responses delayed, and valuable inspection information may not be fully utilized, increasing accident risk.

For example, when measurement values are written incorrectly at the site or the correspondence between photos and inspection locations becomes unclear, extra effort is required later for reconfirmation. Moreover, transcribing paper records into a PC afterward is extremely inefficient, and depending on the scale of the inspection, it is not uncommon for report completion to take several hours. Furthermore, even if a defect discovered on-site needs to be shared or discussed immediately with superiors or stakeholders, the traditional options have been phone calls or emailing photo data, making real-time information sharing difficult.

Thus, NDT sites frequently show inefficiencies in “data management,” “report creation,” and “information sharing,” leading to human error and work delays. With aging infrastructure maintenance and corporate DX (digital transformation) initiatives becoming urgent, leveraging cloud integration and the latest technologies to solve these on-site challenges is gaining attention. Additionally, the aging of experienced inspectors and labor shortages are intensifying, making DX (digitalization) indispensable for conducting inspections efficiently with limited personnel.

How Cloud Integration Changes Nondestructive Testing Operations

Introducing cloud technologies into NDT practices fundamentally transforms previously analog-centered workflows. By enabling data to be saved and shared directly from the field to the cloud, rapid information transmission and efficient data management become possible, resulting in improved inspection quality. Major benefits are summarized below.

• Real-time sharing between field and office: When inspection results are entered from tablets or mobile devices, they can be immediately viewed in the office or at other locations via the cloud. This allows anomalies or measurement data found on site to be shared on the spot, so remote supervisors or specialist technicians can grasp the situation in real time. In emergencies, instructions or decisions can be requested immediately at the site, greatly speeding up response. Also, results can be shared online with remote customers or regulatory authorities, facilitating remote witnessing of inspections—“remote on-site presence.” This eliminates the need for long travel to distant sites for witnessing, saving time and costs for everyone involved in the inspection.

• Centralized management and accumulation of inspection data: By aggregating data in the cloud, information that used to be scattered for each inspection can be unified. Related materials such as photos, measurement values, and report drafts are all stored in the cloud, allowing all stakeholders to access the most up-to-date information. Past inspection histories can be easily searched and referenced, enabling quick answers to questions like “What were the previous measurements for that piece of equipment?” Centralized data with automatic backups also reduces the risk of data loss due to misplaced paper documents or PC failures.

• Automation and efficiency in report creation: Cloud-integrated systems can automatically generate reports based on on-site inputs. If inspection items and judgment criteria are templated in advance, a report laid out in the required format can be nearly completed as soon as the field input is made. Personnel then only need to make minor edits or add comments afterward, greatly reducing the need to create reports from scratch in Word or Excel. One NDT company reported about 90% reduction in work time after implementing a proprietary cloud system (previously, creating a single inspection report took over 5 hours; after implementation, some cases were completed in less than 1 hour). Automation also reduces human error, enabling high-quality, standardized reports to be produced quickly.

In this way, cloud integration fundamentally streamlines NDT workflows and removes the gap between field and office. Inspectors can focus on actual inspection tasks, and managers and stakeholders can timely understand field conditions, leading to improved productivity and safety across the organization. Additionally, by sharing drawings and historical data in the cloud, inspectors can move directly from one field task to the next without returning to the office, reducing travel time and enabling data checks via telework—benefits aligned with work-style reforms. Paperless records also contribute to reducing paper use and lowering the industry’s environmental footprint (contributing to the SDGs).

Key Points for On-site Cloud Utilization: Automatic Data Linking, Coordinate Management, and AR Integration

Effectively operating technologies that connect the cloud and the field requires not just sharing data, but enhancing on-site usability. Combining systems that automatically link photos and measurement data, utilizing high-precision location information, and displaying information via AR (augmented reality) advances prevention of missed records and improves information visualization.

• Automatic linking of captured data: Set up mechanisms so that photos taken during inspection and entered results are automatically linked to the corresponding inspection items or equipment information. For example, if an inspector selects an equipment list or inspection location on a drawing within a tablet inspection app before taking a photo, that image’s metadata will automatically record not only the date and time but also “which equipment/part the photo is of.” This removes the need to name files or sort photos later, preventing linking errors when creating reports. Some implementations use QR codes attached to inspection targets that are scanned by a device to link records, enabling anyone to perform accurate mappings easily. This also eliminates the time to search for photos after inspection, allowing smoother progression to the next task.

• High-precision coordinate management: By linking GPS or positioning technologies with the cloud, it is possible to attach latitude and longitude coordinates to inspection data. For widespread inspections such as bridges or pipelines, it is important to clearly record where each measurement point is located on a map. Recently, centimeter-level (half-inch accuracy) high-precision positioning known as RTK-GNSS has become easily available; by using this, inspection locations can be pinpointed with errors within a few centimeters (within a few in). Plotting inspection results on cloud-based maps or drawings lets you instantly see the distribution of anomalies and accurately identify and compare the same points for future re-inspections.

• On-site information display using AR (augmented reality): AR technology that overlays cloud-stored inspection information on tablet or smartphone camera views is also powerful on site. For example, when pointing a camera at an inspection target, cloud-stored drawings or past damage locations can be marker-displayed over the actual object. This makes it immediately clear “where to inspect” without referring to paper drawings. Also, if recorded anomalies or measurement data are overlaid on the actual object via AR after inspection, office personnel can intuitively verify the site as if they were there. AR is useful for training as well, preserving veteran knowledge as digital information for next-generation inspectors to reference in the field. Furthermore, with recently available AR-capable smart glasses, workers can view necessary information in their field of view even while their hands are occupied, enabling safer and more efficient inspections.

Incorporating these technologies into field processes advances prevention of missed inspection data and deepens understanding. Clear, easily understandable records facilitate smooth team information sharing and tighten the link between field and office.

Expanding Cloud Use Cases and the Future of Nondestructive Testing

Initiatives using cloud and digital technologies in NDT are already producing results in various fields. A few examples are introduced below.

• Social infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, roads, etc.): For regular inspections of bridges and tunnels, initiatives are underway to centrally manage crack photos and concrete deterioration conditions taken on tablets in the cloud and share them among stakeholders. Plotting inspection data on maps to visualize deterioration locations and comparing past and present inspection results in the cloud makes it easier to identify areas requiring repair. For roads, specialized measurement vehicles and smartphone-mounted sensors are beginning to be used to measure pavement cracks and rutting while driving; those results are analyzed and mapped in the cloud to efficiently prioritize repair locations. Advanced examples also exist where drones or 3D laser scanners capture point clouds of entire bridges and store those data in the cloud to monitor long-term changes.

• Plant equipment and piping: In factory and power plant piping inspections, wall thickness measurements and deterioration progression are accumulated in cloud databases and displayed as graphs to support preventive maintenance. Some systems automatically notify in the cloud when measurements exceed preset thresholds to prevent missed abnormalities. Large plants have numerous inspection points for pipes and tanks, but combining coordinate information with the cloud allows precise records of which equipment and which locations were inspected. Experiments using AR to visually highlight inspection points within complex piping networks are underway, potentially enabling thorough inspections even by non-experts.

• Buildings and facilities: The wave of digitization is also reaching building and facility inspections. For exterior wall surveys, inspectors can record crack locations directly on drawings on a tablet and share that information in the cloud so contractors and building owners can immediately plan repairs. For equipment inspections, IoT sensors and periodic inspection data are being centrally managed in the cloud, and systems that alert responsible parties immediately when abnormal values are detected are becoming established.

• Energy (solar, wind, power infrastructure): At large-scale solar farms, drones equipped with infrared cameras automatically detect panel hotspots (abnormal heating) and immediately transmit those images via the cloud to identify faulty panels. Finding defects among tens of thousands of panels spread over wide areas has become fast and efficient with cloud and AI analysis. In wind turbine and transmission line inspections, which involve work at height, camera footage from inspectors’ helmets has been shared via the cloud so specialists in ground control rooms can provide remote support—balancing worker safety with accurate diagnosis. Advanced efforts such as cloud-based AI analysis of photos to automatically detect microscopic cracks in turbine blades are also progressing.

As these cases increase, the future of NDT is changing dramatically. Further DX centered on the cloud is expected. For example, AI image analysis and machine learning will advance technologies that automatically detect deterioration patterns and anomaly signs from vast inspection data stored in the cloud. The spread of high-speed communications like 5G will allow high-definition video and large volumes of sensor data to be sent to the cloud without delay, further improving the accuracy of remote diagnosis and real-time analysis. If photos taken by inspectors and waveform data from sensors are instantly judged by AI and results shared via the cloud, faster and more advanced diagnostics will become commonplace.

Integration with sensor networks and digital twins is also anticipated. IoT sensors installed on structures can monitor vibration and strain 24/7 and continuously send that data to the cloud, enabling real-time detection of anomaly precursors for predictive maintenance. Building a digital twin on the cloud that integrates 3D models of equipment (point clouds and CAD data) with inspection histories to reproduce and analyze state changes from past to present in virtual space is likely to expand. Furthermore, as autonomous drones and remotely operated robots are more closely integrated, inspections of confined or high locations that are difficult for humans to enter are expected to be safely conducted remotely.

Internationally, following the Industry 4.0 trend, the concept of NDE 4.0 (fourth-generation nondestructive evaluation) has been proposed in the NDT field. This movement comprehensively leverages technologies such as IoT, cloud, AI, and AR to elevate inspection processes. In Japan, domestic initiatives such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s promotion of i-Construction and growing needs for remote monitoring in infrastructure are expected to accelerate NDT DX further. Standardization and regulatory frameworks for digital recording of inspection data are also progressing, and cases where electronic inspection results are accepted as official reports are increasing. In the future, the know-how of experienced technicians and data will merge in the cloud, and humans and AI will collaboratively support safe, reliable social infrastructure—ushering in a new reality for nondestructive testing.

Conclusion: Simple Introduction of Positioning with LRTK, AR Integration, and Point Cloud Recording—and a Proposal for NDT DX

Cloud integration and digital technologies are transforming NDT sites. Systems that reduce traditional effort and errors and connect field and office in real time will become the standard for balancing safety and efficiency. One solution that contributes to this realization is the use of LRTK.

LRTK is a small high-precision GNSS device that attaches to smartphones or tablets and can reduce positioning measurement errors to the centimeter level in one step. For example, by attaching an LRTK device to an iPhone and using a dedicated app, you can immediately assign high-precision coordinates to photos and measurement data captured on site. This makes “accurate per-photo location recording” and “plotting anomalies on a map,” which were previously difficult, easy for anyone. Also, by combining with a smartphone’s built-in LiDAR sensor to capture 3D point clouds, the point cloud data can be given absolute coordinates with positioning errors of only a few centimeters (a few in) from the start. The acquired point clouds and inspection results can then be overlaid and confirmed in AR on site. With LRTK, precise positioning and AR-enabled field visualization that previously required specialized surveying equipment and advanced skills can be realized with a single smartphone. The LRTK device, weighing about 125 g and with a thickness of 13 mm (0.51 in), attaches to a smartphone with a dedicated case in one touch and has a built-in battery so no cables are needed. Its lightweight, compact size makes it easy to carry in the field, significantly reducing the burden of transporting traditional surveying equipment.

What matters in promoting NDT DX is how quickly “field-usable” technologies can be introduced. LRTK is a good example and is attracting attention as a way to add high-precision positioning and digital recording without hindering field operations. In an era facing increasing aging infrastructure and labor shortages, actively adopting advanced technologies such as LRTK will be key to greatly expanding the possibilities of nondestructive testing. We propose an NDT DX that seamlessly connects field and office through solutions combining cloud integration and devices like LRTK. Let us harness cloud and cutting-edge technologies together to pioneer the future of nondestructive testing.