Mechatronics Design of an Autonomous Pipe-Inspection Robot

The development of a fully autonomous pipelines inspection system requires design of a robot equipped with the required sensors. In this paper, it is designed a robot with suitable four bar mechanism that can give two linear motions one forward and another backward and carry a camera to capture the picture of defects if any in pipe lines. This self configurable robot has six powered wheels (rollers) chains with three belts and each wheel chain is operated by a micro DC motor. The new wheel chain mechanism is foldable by using a threaded rod. Using this foldable mechanism, a small-sized robot whose external diameter is 180 mm is designed. The velocity and acceleration analysis of each link is calculated for four bar mechanism. Validity of this new foldable wheel chain mechanism is proved through dynamic simulation. Based on this, the stiffness of the torsion threaded rod and the actuator size of DC motors are decided and a prototype of the pipeline inspection robot system is developed. It consists of a main body made from aluminum material and main DC motor and 6 micro DC motors to give motion to six rollers.

Journal of physics, 2021

Daily tasks mixed with the various applications in the robotic field. Since past, pipes have been used as the safe fluid transmitter. But gradually, these pipes affected by fatigue, cracking, leakage, sediment and breaking down. Also, sometimes humid environment and chemical products existing in the soil, causes rust and fatigue the pipes. All these problems lead to redundancy and impose high expenses for installation and maintenance. One of the recent inspection ways, is using the robot controller which leads to help and reduces the inspection time and preventive repairs activity. Besides, sometimes there are some unpleasant situation such as unfit pipes. It is obvious that in these conditions, doing inspection in toxic arena, narrow and meandering ways is impossible by human. So, designing a pipe inspection robot can be helpful in such circumstances. In this design, first, the former study, the way of operation, movement, mechanisms and advantages of each robot have studied. Then, by considering important parameters in designing, and sketching, making robot with the help of CATIA took place. This structure enjoys a regular mechanism design. It also has a proportional pipe diameter with the possibility of crossing through the slope routes. On the other hand, recording and processing of visual report, needs a camera and GUI toolbox written in Matlab. So image processing can help to exact investigation. One of the main difference of this research work over the various test on the platform, is hiring the mentioned toolbox which helps the operator to have the double investigation inside of the pipes. Moreover, the adjustable mechanism to pipe diameter, polyhedral movement and ascension power, relatively high efficiency in order to use frictional power and reducing repair and pause time are the advantages of this design. Also, observing the inner side of the pipe on the monitor, leads to reducing images. Moreover, its investigation by the introduced toolbox, causes more effective observation, more quickly diagnosis and analysis.

International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology, 2021

Pipeline integrity checks have resulted in the need for non-destructive testing (NDT) of the pipelines to improve its reliability and reduce the loss of products due to cracks, corrosions, etc. This will help to save oil resources, hence, the need for the development of the inline pipe inspection robot. In this study, an inline inspection robot was developed for crack and corrosion detection in pipeline. The developed robot consist of ultrasonic sensors to avoid obstacles, a visual aid with high resolution to view real time images and color sensors for corrosion detection. The Autodesk inventor software was employed for the drafting and solid modeling of the robot. A dummy pipe of 500 mm diameter and 2000 mm length with induced cracks and corrosion was fabricated to test the robot. The color sensors placed at each side of the robot were used to detect corrosion in the dummy pipe while the image processing was done to analyze the crack as well as the type and depth of corrosion present in the dummy pipe. The results obtained show the ability of the developed robot to detect cracks in the pipeline in addition to its ability to determine the crack growth. Hence, the work provides a diagnostic tool for analyzing the extent of crack growth and its effect on the pipe in order to determine its fatigue rate and predict its useful life.

Journal of Advancements in Robotics, 2022

Nowadays, pipelines are the most commonly and widely used method of transporting fluids and gases. Regular inspection is necessary for the pipelines to work correctly. Humans must not enter potentially dangerous environments to inspect these pipelines. As a result of this, pipeline robots were created. These pipe inspection robots help in pipeline inspection, protecting numerous people from harm since human beings cannot enter the pipes and inspect them in case there is any such or kind of damage that requires repair. Despite of several advancements, pipeline robots continue to have a number of limitations. The introduction of this in pipe inspection robots helps to solve many problems, such as leakage of the gas or fluid pipelines, rustiness, and also if the pipe is broken from any part.

International Journal of Robotics and Control

Daily tasks mixed with the various applications in the robotic field. Since past, pipes have been used as the safe fluid transmitter. But gradually, these pipes affected by fatigue, cracking, leakage, sediment and breaking down. Also, sometimes humid environment and chemical products existing in the soil, causes rust and fatigue the pipes. All these problems lead to redundancy and impose high expenses for installation and maintenance. One of the recent inspection ways, is using the robot controller which leads to help and reduces the inspection time and preventive repairs activity. Besides, sometimes there are some unpleasant situation such as unfit pipes. It is obvious that in these conditions, doing inspection in toxic arena, narrow and meandering ways is impossible by human. So, designing a pipe inspection robot can be helpful in such circumstances. In this design, first, the former study, the way of operation, movement, mechanisms and advantages of each robot have studied. Then,...

International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology, 2021

Piping is very vital equipment in most of the industries. Especially, in oil and natural gas industry pipe and thereby, its inspection and maintenance for its proper working is very important. But inspection of pipe is a difficult task due to various complicated joints and sudden change in its cross-sectional area. Ultrasonic testing is widely used for this purpose and it is a costly affair. But, pipe inspection robot is different in its features and construction. It has very simple, compact, lightweight designed body. It is powered by battery and driven by motor. Rolling mode, screw driving mode, steering mode makes the robot to propel in a pipe precisely and smoothly. Its light weight make the robot very portable and it can be used by unskilled operator as well. Apart from inspection, the robot is itself a platform for mounting of various sensors to increase its utility as per requirement and can also be used for cleaning of internal surface of a pipe.

International Conference on Contents, Computing & Communication (ICCCC-2022), 2022

Robotics has many applications in today's era. Pipes were used to keep the fluid transmitter safe. However, these pipes are affected by fatigue, cracking, leakage, sediment, breaking down, humid environment, and chemical reaction, which causes rust and fatigue. All of these issues are related to the installation and maintenance of pipes in various applications. In the latest technology inspections of pipes done by using the robot controller reduce the inspection time and preventive repairs activity. But due to certain circumstances, ther e may be a chance of unfit pipes conditions. In this experiment has been study method of operations, robot movement, mechanisms, and benefits. Then, by using CATIA software important parameter has to be considered like designing and drafting This construction has a well-designed mechanism. To validate the software results, a series of experiments was conducted with visual report, camera and GUI toolbox. The use of a mini-cam for visualising in-pipe inspections or other devices required for detecting failures that appear in the inner part of pipes using measuring systems with lasers, sensors, and so on. In this research inside pipe modular robotic system is proposed inside of the pipes. Testing has been done for different movement and different slopes. The important thing is the amount of force between robot tracked units and pipe wall.

IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 2016

An in-pipe inspection robots are designed to remove the labour force and to act in inaccessible environment. In this paper we present a comprehensive study of in-pipe inspection robot. After some period every pipeline requires inspection and maintenance to ensure their safety and integrity. So, in-pipe inspection robots are used to inspect varies pipeline elements such as straight pipelines, elbow and branches internally. Inpipe inspection robot inspect the pipes of various size and find the defects and obstacles in the pipes. There are many in-pipe inspection robots which are differ by their power source, steering mechanism and application. This paper also shows the comparative study of different in-pipe inspection robots. Section 6 shows the new developed steering mechanism for improvising working style of in-pipe inspection robot. Still the applications of in-pipe inspection robots are limited according to pipeline material, pipe size and working environment.

… Colloquium on Mobile …, 2002

The paper presents an original robot architecture for in-pipe inspection. The robot consists of two parts articulated with a universal joint. One part is guided along the pipe by a set of wheels moving parallel to the axis of the pipe, while the other part is forced to follow an helical motion thanks to tilted wheels rotating about the axis of the pipe. A single motor is placed between the two bodies to produce the motion. All the wheels are mounted on a suspension to accommodate for changing tube diameter and curves in the pipe. The robot is autonomous and carries its own batteries and radio link. Four different prototypes have been constructed for pipe diameters of 170, 70 and 40 mm, respectively. For smaller diameters, the batteries and the radio receiver may be placed on an additional body attached to the others. The autonomy of the prototypes is about 2 hours. This architecture is very simple and the rotary motion can be exploited to carry out scrubbing or inspection tasks.