Environment & Forestry
Early pine wilt detection with ultrasonic NDT
Ultrasound catches internal change in pines that look healthy.
Project overview
- Site
- Forest sites
- Target
- Pine trees
- Data
- Ultrasonic propagation, attenuation and phase
- Objective
- Early detection of pine wilt infection
- Client
- National Institute of Forest Science
- Duration
- Research project
Field problem
Pine wilt disease control starts with finding infected trees early, but early-stage infection shows almost no visible symptoms. Existing tree diagnostics needed specialists and long inspection times, which made them hard to scale for forest disaster response.
Approach
We built ultrasonic NDT equipment and a field reading interface that tracks changes in ultrasonic propagation inside trunks. Data is captured and read on site, without an external network.
Results
- Earlier detection via ultrasonic analysis
- Single on-site scan and read workflow
- Less dependence on specialists
- Detection of internal change in visually healthy trees
Solution details
A field diagnostic system that detects internal tree changes with non-destructive ultrasonic inspection.
It detects infection signs such as pine wilt disease on site, without an external network.
- Non-destructive ultrasonic inspection
- Earlier infection detection
- On-site reading interface
- Works without an external network
- Portable field unit
- Signals
- Ultrasonic propagation, attenuation, and phase shifts
- Deployment
- Portable scan equipment with a reading interface
- Can it detect pine wilt disease early?
- Changes in ultrasonic propagation patterns reveal internal changes in trees that look healthy, so infection can be identified earlier.
- Does it work in the field without a network?
- Yes. The portable field unit collects and interprets data on site without an external network.