A Practical Minimalism Approach to In-pipe Robot Localization

Wu, You; Mittmann, Elizabeth; Winston, Crystal

doi:10.23919/acc.2019.8814648

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Drift is the key problem with dead-reckoning sensors, and so dead-reckoning has also been combined with drift correction methods using detected landmark locations. The landmarks can either be naturally occurring, such as pipe-length joints [180], [183]- [185] or deliberately added to the pipe network, such as GPS-located above ground reference stations [186], [187]. Pipe-length joints can be detected using magnetic flux leakage and electromagnetic acoustic transducers [180], [184], or from the vibration signal from an accelerometer as the robot passes through the joint [183].…”

Section: A Inertial and Odometry Dead Reckoning Sensors With Drift Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…this is the case in certain pipelines where each pipe length is known with certainty. This type of approach has been researched in water distribution pipes, combined with IMU dead-reckoning [185] and is promising because it is low-cost and provides the needed drift correction to dead reckoning methods. The disadvantage with deliberately adding reference landmarks to a pipe network is that it increases the cost and could become prohibitively expensive when considering the hundreds of thousands of kilometres of existing pipe networks.…”

Section: A Inertial and Odometry Dead Reckoning Sensors With Drift Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Inspection Robots in Water and Sewer Pipe Networks: A Review

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the present time, water and sewer pipe networks are predominantly inspected manually. In the near future, smart cities will perform intelligent autonomous monitoring of buried pipe networks, using teams of small robots. These robots, equipped with all necessary computational facilities and sensors (optical, acoustic, inertial, thermal, pressure and others) will be able to inspect pipes whilst navigating, selflocalising and communicating information about the pipe condition and faults such as leaks or blockages to human operators for monitoring and decision support. The predominantly manual inspection of pipe networks will be replaced with teams of autonomous inspection robots that can operate for long periods of time over a large spatial scale. Reliable autonomous navigation and reporting of faults at this scale requires effective localization and mapping, which is the estimation of the robot's position and its surrounding environment. This survey presents an overview of state-of-the-art works on robot simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with a focus on water and sewer pipe networks. It considers various aspects of the SLAM problem in pipes, from the motivation, to the water industry requirements, modern SLAM methods, map-types and sensors suited to pipes. Future challenges such as robustness for long term robot operation in pipes are discussed, including how making use of prior knowledge, e.g. geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to build map estimates, and improve the multi-robot SLAM in the pipe environment.

show abstract

Section: A Inertial and Odometry Dead Reckoning Sensors With Drift Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Inertial and Odometry Dead Reckoning Sensors With Drift Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Inspection Robots in Water and Sewer Pipe Networks: A Review

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A direct run-time comparison between the methods for a fixed computational complexity is presented in Fig. 8, which shows that the IPF algorithm can achieve the same localization error of RMSE = 2 m within approximately 1 16 th and 1 9 th of the time required by the MPF algorithm for MNS 1 and within approximately 1 5 th and 1 3 rd of the time for MNS 2.…”

Section: Mca-based Multiple Particle Filtering Vs Input-aided Particmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technological advances played a pivotal role in leveraging the use of miniature wireless agents for novel application cases. Among these are for example scenarios where millimeter-sized agents are employed for pipeline inspection [1][2][3] or the exploration of difficult-to-access environments [4]. In the former case, agents are deployed to monitor the physical state of the piping system, i.e., to analyze the pipes for physical damages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, the effect of the fluid on the agents' kinetics is either difficult to predict or unknown. Fourth, due to the deployment in underground or isolated environments, a localization 1 , e.g., via global positioning system (GPS) is not possible. For this reason, the agents are equipped with ultrasonic transceivers that facilitate agent-to-agent measurements (AAMs) and agent-to-beacon measurements (ABMs).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Random field-aided tracking of autonomous kinetically passive wireless agents

Schlupkothen

Heidenblut

Ascheid

2020

EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Continuous miniaturization of circuitry has open the door for various novel application scenarios of millimeter-sized wireless agents such as for the exploration of difficult-to-access fluid environments. In this context, agents are envisioned to be employed, e.g., for pipeline inspection or groundwater analysis. In either case, the demand for miniature sensors is incompatible with propulsion capabilities. Consequently, the agents are condemned to be kinetically passive and are, thus, subject to the fluid dynamics present in the environment. In these situations, the localization is complicated by the fact that unknown external forces (e.g., from the fluid) govern the motion of the agents. In this work, a comprehensive framework is presented that targets the simultaneous estimation of the external forces stemming from the fluid and the agents' positions which are traversing the environment. More precisely, a Bayesian hierarchical model is proposed that models' relevant characteristics of the fluid via a spatial random field and incorporates this as control input into the motion model. The random field model facilitates the consideration of spatial correlation among the agents' trajectories and, thereby, improves the localization significantly. Additionally, this is combined with multiple particle filtering to account for the fact that within such underground fluid environments, only a localization based on distance and/or bearing measurements is feasible. In the results provided in this work, which are based on realistic computational fluid dynamics simulations, it is shown that-via the proposed spatial model-significant improvements in terms of localization accuracy can be achieved.

show abstract

Colloidal State Machines as Smart Tracers for Chemical Reactor Analysis

Zhang

Yang

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A widely utilized tool in reactor analysis is passive tracers that report the residence time distribution, allowing estimation of the conversion and other properties of the system. Recently, advances in microrobotics have introduced powered and functional entities with sizes comparable to some traditional tracers. This has motivated the concept of Smart Tracers that could record the local chemical concentrations, temperature, or other conditions as they progress through reactors. Herein, the design constraints and advantages of Smart Tracers by simulating their operation in a laminar flow reactor model conducting chemical reactions of various orders are analyzed. It is noted that far fewer particles are necessary to completely map even the most complex concentration gradients compared with their conventional counterparts. Design criteria explored herein include sampling frequency, memory storage capacity, and ensemble number necessary to achieve the required accuracy to inform a reactor model. Cases of severe particle diffusion and sensor noise appear to bind the functional upper limit of such probes and require consideration for future design. The results of the study provide a starting framework for applying the new technology of microrobotics to the broad and impactful set of problems classified as chemical reactor analysis.

show abstract

A Practical Minimalism Approach to In-pipe Robot Localization

Cited by 14 publications

References 9 publications

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Inspection Robots in Water and Sewer Pipe Networks: A Review

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Inspection Robots in Water and Sewer Pipe Networks: A Review

Random field-aided tracking of autonomous kinetically passive wireless agents

Colloidal State Machines as Smart Tracers for Chemical Reactor Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About