A new inspection robot for pipelines with bends and junctions

Venkateswaran, Swaminath; Chablat, Damien

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-20131-9_4

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…In the future work, the initial problem that will be addressed is the modification of this robot into a reconfigurable mechanism. By retaining the caterpillar principle of the robot, a tensegrity type mechanism that uses three tension springs and a universal joint has been introduced as articulation units between each motor modules [28]. A detailed design and static analysis of this mechanism is presented in [29] to determine the geometrical workspace and bending angle limits, which are the key constraints taken into account for the robot to pass through bends or junctions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and Experimental Validation of the Prototype of a Bio-Inspired Piping Inspection Robot

2019

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Piping inspection robots are of greater importance for industries such as nuclear, chemical and sewage. Mechanisms having closed loop or tree-like structures can be employed in such pipelines owing to their adaptable structures. A bio-inspired caterpillar type piping inspection robot was developed at Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes (LS2N), France. Using DC motors and leg mechanisms, the robot accomplishes the locomotion of a caterpillar in six-steps. With the help of Coulomb’s law of dry friction, a static force model was written and the contact forces between legs of robot and pipeline walls were determined. The actuator forces of the DC motors were then estimated under static phases for horizontal and vertical orientations of the pipeline. Experiments were then conducted on the prototype where the peak results of static force analysis for a given pipe diameter were set as threshold limits to attain static phases inside a test pipeline. The real-time actuator forces were estimated in experiments for similar orientations of the pipeline of static force models and they were found to be higher when compared to the numerical model.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and Experimental Validation of the Prototype of a Bio-Inspired Piping Inspection Robot

2019

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“…Also, the spindle drive used in the prototype allows the robot to move at a very low speed of 0.43 mm/s [11]. By the addition of tensegrity mechanisms between the motor modules, the robot was made flexible [12]. The dimensions of the existing motor units are oversized and might restrict the flexible robot to overcome pipe bends or junctions.…”

Section: Ikpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article focuses on the optimum design of the flexible piping inspection robot proposed in [12] through three different problems. The robot assembly is comprised of multiple sub-systems such as tensegrity mechanisms, motor units and leg mechanisms.…”

Section: Ikpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The central module takes care of the elongation and retraction phases 1 . By the study of design issues viz: Passive compliance, Active compliance and Tilt limits [12,20], a tensegrity mechanism was proposed and introduced as an articulation unit for the bio-inspired robot. Through singularity and workspace analysis, two types of tensegrity mechanisms viz: 3-SPS-U and 4-SPS-U architectures were analyzed in [19].…”

Section: Architecture Of the Robotmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Optimal Design of a Flexible Piping Inspection Robot

Venkateswaran

Chablat

Hamon

2021

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics

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This article presents an optimization approach for the design of a piping inspection robot. A rigid bio-inspired piping inspection robot that moves like a caterpillar was designed and developed at LS2N, France. By the addition of tensegrity mechanisms between the motor modules, the mobile robot becomes flexible to pass through the bends. However, the existing motor units prove to be oversized for passing through pipe bends at 90°. Thus, three cascading optimization problems are presented in this article to determine the sizing of robot assembly that can overcome such pipe bends. The first problem deals with the identification of design parameters of the tensegrity mechanism based on static stability. Followed by that, in the second problem, the optimum design parameters of the robot modules are determined for the robot assembly without the presence of leg mechanisms. The third problem deals with the determination of the size of the leg mechanism for the results of the two previous optimization problems. A digital model of the optimized robot assembly is then realized using CAD software.

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“…For internal inspection of pipelines, while magnetic wheels can work in such a scene [6,7], a robot with an automatic tractive force adjusting function is more reliable as it enables the robot to actively adapt to the pipeline diameters [8]. Except for the use of wheels, caterpillar [9] and shape memory alloy actuators [10] are also a selection for moving inside pipelines. For the design of inspection robots, a two-module design was employed to perform compliance with the deformation of pipelines [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Pipeline Inspection Robot for the Standard Oil Pipeline of China National Petroleum Corporation

Zhang

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

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The periodic inspection for oil pipelines is required due to the deterioration over time. A multitude of factors brings such a deterioration, from corrosion, leaks, to cracks, which may lead to blowbacks and cause the damages for operators and the environments. With the progress of robotics technology, various types of mobile robots and mechanisms are designed to cope with this issue. Rather than the assignment of human workers in hazardous environments, the deployment of such kinds of inspection robots can take on this duty more time-efficiently and safely, preventing the human workers from the high-risk of the inspection task in the oil pipelines. This paper presents a novel design of a mobile robot for oil pipeline inspection, which is cooperated with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). With the improvement of the previous inspection robot used in CNPC’s standard oil pipelines, the newly designed robot is composed of six groups of symmetrical supporting wheels, and a more powerful motors as well as a more advanced control system. This new design endows the oil pipeline inspection robot with better performance on six aspects: traction, obstacle-adaptivity, operation endurance, gradeability, visual perception, and stability. The field testing results at multiple oil transfer stations across several months demonstrate the reliability of this mobile robot under various severe situations in China and validate its performance in the studied aspects.

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A new inspection robot for pipelines with bends and junctions

Cited by 10 publications

References 15 publications

Numerical and Experimental Validation of the Prototype of a Bio-Inspired Piping Inspection Robot

Numerical and Experimental Validation of the Prototype of a Bio-Inspired Piping Inspection Robot

An Optimal Design of a Flexible Piping Inspection Robot

Development of a Pipeline Inspection Robot for the Standard Oil Pipeline of China National Petroleum Corporation

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