Developing an adaptable pipe inspection robot using shape memory alloy actuators

Hadi, Alireza; Hassani, Azadeh; Alipour, Khalil; Moghadam, Reza Askari; Niaz, Pouya P.

doi:10.1177/1045389x19898255

Cited by 30 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…Rajendran Sugin Elankavi, Design and Motion Planning of a wheeled type Pipeline Inspection Robot using tracked wheels, and its mechanism helps it adapt to inner pipeline conditions [35]- [39]. The wheel type uses the basic rotation of wheels to move inside pipelines and has high mobility compared to the other types [40]- [44]. These robots face many challenges inside the pipeline since it has to pass through curved and branched pipes.…”

Section: A Types Of Ipirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years many developments have been made in In-Pipe Inspection Robot (IPIR) and are grouped under their different locomotion types. They are namely the Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) [4]- [10], screw [11]- [17], inchworm [18]- [24], wall press [25]- [29], walking [30]- [34], caterpillar [35]- [39] and wheel type [40], [41], [50]- [52], [42]- [49] as shown in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and Motion Planning of a Wheeled Type Pipeline Inspection Robot

Elankavi

Dinakaran

Doss

et al. 2022

Journal of Robotics and Control

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The most popular method for transporting fluids, and gases is through pipelines. For them to work correctly, regular inspection is necessary. Humans must enter potentially dangerous environments to inspect pipelines. As a result, pipeline robots came into existence. These robots aid in pipeline inspection, protecting numerous people from harm. Despite numerous improvements, pipeline robots still have several limitations. This paper presents the design and motion planning of a wheeled type pipeline inspection robot that can inspect pipelines having an inner diameter between 250 mm to 350 mm. The traditional wheeled robot design has three wheels fixed symmetrically at a 120° angle apart from each other. When maneuvering through a curved pipeline, this robot encounters motion singularity. The proposed robot fixes the wheels at different angles to address this issue, allowing the robot to stay in constant contact with the pipe's surface. Motion analysis is done for the proposed and existing robot design to study their behavior inside the pipeline. The result shows that the proposed robot avoids motion singularity and improves mobility inside pipelines. 3d printing technology aids in the development of the proposed robot. The experimental tests on the developed robot inside a 300 mm-diameter straight and curved pipeline show that the robot avoids motion singularity.

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Section: A Types Of Ipirmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Motion Planning of a Wheeled Type Pipeline Inspection Robot

Elankavi

Dinakaran

Doss

et al. 2022

Journal of Robotics and Control

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show abstract

“…The pneumatic actuated robots need special mechanisms to transform the actuator power to the mechanical components which makes their motion slow during operation. In some robots, new actuators are used to stabilize the robot and move it forward in the network [25]. There are some considerations in robots' operation conditions that need to be addressed in the design of in-pipe robots.…”

Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

SmartCrawler: An In-pipe Robotic System with Novel Low-frequency Wireless Communication Setup in Water Distribution Systems

Kazeminasab¹,

Banks²

2021

Preprint

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Water Distribution Systems (WDS) are critical infrastructures that deliver potable water to residential areas. Water quality monitoring is one of the requirements for utility managers to ensure the health of the water. However, it is challenging to access all parts of the WDS since they are long and comprise different configurations. In this paper, we propose a size-adaptable in-pipe robot so-called “SmartCrawler”. We develop two-phase control algorithm that enables reliable motion in different configurations of pipelines. The controller in phase 1 stabilizes the robot in the straight paths and tracks the desired velocity with high-level linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and low-level proportional-integral-derivative (PID) based controllers. The controller in phase 2 enables the robot to have reliable change of direction in the non-straight paths. The performance of the two-phase controller is evaluated with experimental and simulation results. Wireless underground communication is a challenging task for underground applications. To facilitate wireless communication, we propose an active radio frequency identification (RFID) based communication working in 434MHz carrier frequency and evaluate its performance with experimental results. At the end of this work, we design the printed circuit board (PCB) for the SmartCrawler. The simulation and the experimental results prove the proposed robotic system can be used for in-pipe missions where wireless communication is needed to communicate with the robot during operation. <br>

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“…Pneumatic actuators [11], [15], [16] and electrical actuators that have DC motors [17]- [28] are the most common in in-pipe robots. Some new actuators like shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators have also been used to generate traction and press forces in in-pipe robots [29]. The power supply for in-pipe robots can be either provided by cable [18], [19], [26], [28], [30]- [34] or battery [9], [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%