Design and manufacturing a novel screw‐in‐pipe inspection robot with steering capability

Abstract

In this article, a novel in-pipe inspection robot is designed and manufactured in Kharazmi University KharazmPipeBot. This robot is able to move through any pipeline with a predefined diameter range with a variable pitch rate and report any desired data within the pipe with the aid of the installed camera. To achieve the highest stability of the robot through the pipe, the robot's movement is based on the screw locomotion protocol provided by the aid of its rotor and stator. A simple suspension is designed for three legs of the robot by installing a passive prismatic joint equipped with a spring for each leg to provide a smoother movement for the robot chassis. The main novelty of the robot is adding an extra controlling actuator for the robot which is the steer of the front wheels. This input can control the pitch rate of the robot movement and consequently the spiral track of the wheels can be actively managed. This importance lets us to bypass the probable obstacles attached to the inner wall of the pipes. A brief presentation of the robot model is delivered.Afterward, to verify the claimed novelties of the system, a prototype of the robot is manufactured in Kharazmi University and the efficiency of the robot is demonstrated by conducting some initial experimental tests. It is shown that the robot can move with a variable pitch rate through the wall and pass a detected obstacle accordingly.in-pipe inspection robot, manufacturing a prototype, screw-based locomotion, steerable in-pipe robot | INTRODUCTIONAccording to cover the maintenance protocols of pipeline-based industries, all of the installations and structures should be checked and verified frequently to meet the required standards and International Organization for Standardization. Besides, there exists sometimes a problem in the system for which its related source should be detected accordingly. One of the most usual structures of these installations is pipes for which its inspectional operation is challenging since a human operator cannot move through them and recognize the fault source. Recently by appearance of in-pipe inspection robots, this challenge is resolved to some extent. In-pipe inspection robots are mobile robots whose locomotion is adapted to the geometrical specifications of the target pipe and thus are able to move through the pipes and detect any problem or crack of the pipes by the aid of their installed sensors and report it to the operator. A vast variety of these robots have been designed and manufactured so far each of which with some specific advantages. The in-pipe inspection robot which is proposed in Moshayedi et al. ( 2019) has a simple wheeled-based locomotion system with active drive wheels.This robot is able to move through pipes with various diameters by changing its structural size. However, this robot has no suspension system but it is able to move through inclined surfaces using its three direct current (DC) motors. An in-pipe robot adjustable with the

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