Mobile robot with failure inspection system for ferromagnetic structures using magnetic memory method

Abstract

Flaws or cracks are one of the major failures in oil and gas pipeline networks. The early detection of these failures is very important for the safety of the industry, and this last requires of analysis for non-destructive testing (NDT), which is reliable, inexpensive and easy to implement. In this paper, we propose the development of an embedded prototype mounted on a mobile robot for the inspection of defects in ferromagnetic plates. This prototype has two embedded systems (control and data acquisition), which are based on a microcontroller of 8 and 32 bits, respectively. On the one hand, the first system for control has the logic to govern the sensors and motors that will allow to the robot moves with autonomous way during 45 min. While, the second system presents an algorithm for storing, processing and sending the data obtained from the sensors, being able to measure variations in the magnetic field in the order of 0.1 µT. Magnetic-field reading tests have been carried out on control ASTM A-27 ferromagnetic plates, obtaining experimental response in the 3 axes of the magnetic domains, which is very close to the expected results by the magnetic-flux density model that is calculated from the fields E and B derived from the equations of a Hertz dipole, and developed in the high-level Python programming language. The prototype proposed for NDT can detect geometric defects in the range of millimeters, producing changes in the density of the magnetic field in the order of thousands of µT.