Design and Analysis of Independently Adjustable Large In-Pipe Robot for Long-Distance Pipeline

Abstract

Large oil and gas pipelines are prone to corrosion and leakage, so in-pipe inspection is necessary. In this article, we show a novel robot mechanism for long-distance pipeline inspection. The robot consists of three crawlers and electric putters, which can adjust their speed and radius independently. Independent adjustment and system self-checking of the robot are achieved through multiple sensors. To make the robot operate efficiently, we studied the influence of size parameters on the forces between the central body and crawler. Moreover, we investigated how to adjust the attitude of the robot through the differential speed of the three crawlers. Static and dynamic simulations of internal forces are presented. The primary experiments indicate that our robot can operate stably in a large steel pipe.

Towards long-distance inspection for in-pipe robots in water distribution systems with smart motion facilitated by particle filter and multi-phase motion controller

“…Hence, it can inspect around 5400 m (i.e. 3.35 mile) of the pipeline with one turn of battery charge with a proper motion control algorithm that is higher than its counterparts [46,47]. In the next section, we propose the motion cocntrol algorith, for the robot.…”

“…In this section, we designed a multi-phase motion control for our proposed robot that enables maneuverability with stabilized motion in complicated configurations of pipeline that is has been a challenge for in-pipe robots [39,46,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. However, switching between different phases of motion controller remains a challenge to solve.…”

Cornering Algorithm for a Crawler In-Pipe Inspection Robot

“…The track is made of polyurethane with a length of approximately toothed XH (68 teeth) in consideration of the endurance of the track working inside the tube. The mechanical structure of the robot can be seen in detail [19].…”

Localization, Mapping, Navigation, and Inspection Methods in In-Pipe Robots: A Review

“…In the Caterpillar type robots, belts and wheels move the robot inside the pipe with high friction between the robot and the pipe wall that ensures a reliable motion compared to wheeled robots. The caterpillar type robots are divided into the simple structure [8] and wall-press type [9].…”

“…Some new actuators like shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators have also been used to generate traction and press forces in in-pipe robots [29]. The power supply for in-pipe robots can be either provided by cable [18], [19], [26], [28], [30]- [34] or battery [9], [17]. Fig.…”