ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,360,082, issued on July 15, was assigned to National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC (Albuquerque, N.M.).

"Systems and methods for remote, automated non-destructive inspection" was invented by Joshua Paquette (Albuquerque, N.M.), Dennis P. Roach (Albuquerque, N.M.), Thomas M. Rice (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Clay S. Newton (Cedar Crest, N.M.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An automated, inspection system that includes a robot with a closed loop control system that includes multiple Nondestructive Testing (NDI) modalities for complete through-thickness inspection of structures (e.g., wind turbine blades, aircraft, pressure ves...