Pipeline Inspection Gauge Position Estimation Using Inertial Measurement Unit, Odometer, and a Set of Reference Stations

Abstract

This paper presents a low-cost methodology to estimate the position of a pipeline inspection gauge (PIG). The environment in which the PIG navigates is inside the thick walls of a metallic pipeline, where it is not possible to receive a global positioning system (GPS) signal. As a consequence, it is necessary to use other means of navigation. A technique is presented in the paper that uses an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a speedometer, and a set of reference stations. A Kalman filter is used to fuse the measurements from the IMU, the speedometer, and the reference stations. The reference stations, with known GPS coordinates, are installed for every set interval to correct the PIG’s state estimate from the errors that accumulate due to the integration of the IMU measurements. The paper presents three scenarios. These scenarios differ in the way the update step of the Kalman filter is performed. Experimental results are presented along with a 100-run Monte Carlo test to verify the estimator’s consistency.

A Comprehensive Review of Micro-Inertial Measurement Unit Based Intelligent PIG Multi-Sensor Fusion Technologies for Small-Diameter Pipeline Surveying

“…Usually, there are four types of intelligent PIGs that are widely used for the PIM of the small-diameter pipeline, which are categorized by the regular smart PIG, the remoted PIG, the gyroscopic PIG and the SmartBall PIG according to their dynamic motion mechanisms for surveying various pipelines [36][37][38][39][40]. These are shown in Figure 1 In Figure 1a, the regular smart PIG is snake-shaped, which carries the pipeline defect detection sensors and the pipeline surveying sensors by several cylindrical sections, to implement the surveying of the inspected pipelines after it is driven by the pressure differential between the two adjacent ends of the cylindrical sections [26,27,41]. Specifically, the operating interval time and travel distance between each launching and receiving are determined by the installed batteries and the smoothing condition of the inner surface of the inspected pipeline.…”

“…Finally, the intelligent PIG is used to inspect the pipeline wall defects (corrosion, dents, cracks, pits and so on) and implement the pipeline surveying task. The intelligent PIG is one of the most comprehensive and effective tools that carries the PIG inspection system and PIG surveying system to implement the PIM of the pipelines when it travels inside the inspected pipeline [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Nevertheless, due to the limitations of its dimensions, power consumption and surveying precision of the small-dimension sensors, small-diameter pipeline surveying and inspection technologies have been a research focus in recent years [ 28 ].…”

Micro-Inertial-Aided High-Precision Positioning Method for Small-Diameter PIG Navigation

“…Furthermore, these updates are both integrated by EKF and Rauch-Tung-Striebel smoother (RTSS) to estimate and correct the errors of micro-inertial sensors and the PIG navigation system [21].…”

Robot Localization in Water Pipes Using Acoustic Signals and Pose Graph Optimization

“…In the pipe environment, it is expected that the magnetometer component will not give a reliable measurement of heading angle, and so, the measurement using the gyroscope alone will suffer from drift due to integrated error [ 14 , 15 ]. Therefore, methods have been developed to use IMU measurements in combination with tethers measuring distance travelled [ 16 , 17 ], knowledge of known landmark positions [ 18 , 19 ], and knowledge of the length of pipe sections [ 20 ] in order to correct drift. IMUs have also been used to detect features such as junctions and corners [ 15 , 21 , 22 ].…”