Development of the Microrobot for Indoor Pipeline

Abstract

Generally the in-pipe microrobots can be used for the mobile inspection of small diameter pipes. This paper describes the structure and design of an in-pipe microrobot. The suggested microrobot was built to use wheels for locomotion, and to be able to adapt its structure according to the inner diameter of the inspected pipe. Being powered using wires, the microrobot is not energetically autonomous. The microrobot is able to maintain its balanced state due to the pressure exerted by the wheels onto the inner surface of the pipe and it can adapt to pipe diameters ranged between 30 an 50 mm. The driving is achieved by using a DC motor with integrated gearbox. Motion transmission from the motor to the drive wheels is done by using three geared transmissions and the contact between the wheels and the pipe wall is continuously maintained trough a torsion springs mounted on the rotational joints of the wheel support elements. The testing of the microrobot was performed using a steel pipe with the diameter of 50 mm, placed both horizontally and vertically.

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“…For pipe inspection, Brunete et al [13,14] developed multi-configurable modular microrobots that adapt coordinately through a variety of pipes. Furthermore, microrobots with unique movement mechanisms, namely, adaptable wheeled microrobots for pipeline inspection, were fabricated and tested in 50 mm pipes using a wired connection to a DC motor [15].…”

A Novel Voice-Coil Actuated Mini Crawler for In-Pipe Application Employing Active Force Control With Iterative Learning Algorithm

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