Abstract

Pipeline networks are one of the key infrastructures of our modern life. Proactive monitoring and frequent inspection of pipeline networks are very important for sustaining their safe and efficient functionalities. Existing monitoring and maintenance approaches are costly and inefficient because pipelines can be installed in large scale and in an inaccessible and hazardous environment. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)-based Autonomous Maintenance system for Pipelines, called RAMP, which combines robotic, sensing, and RFID technologies for efficient and accurate inspection, corrective reparation, and precise geo-location information. RAMP can provide not only economical and scalable remedy but also safe and customizable solution. RAMP also allows proactive and corrective monitoring and maintenance of pipelines. One prominent advantage of RAMP is that it can be applied to a large variety of pipeline systems including water, sewer, and gas pipelines. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and superior performance of RAMP in comparison to the existing pipeline monitoring systems.

Highlights

  • Pipeline networks are the indispensable part of our modern life

  • We propose in this article a novel Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)-based Autonomous Monitoring system for Pipelines, called RAMP, which combines sensor- and robot agent-based technologies with RFID technology for the very first time for event localization and proactive and corrective monitoring of a large spectrum of pipeline types including water, sewer, and gas pipelines

  • We show the cost-effectiveness, scalability, and good performances of our pipeline monitoring system based on our RFID-based localization technique of mobile sensors and incidents, powerless storage system using Multiple-channeled Redundant Array of Independent RFID Tags (McRAIT), and autonomous robot

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Summary

Introduction

Pipeline networks are the indispensable part of our modern life. Proactive monitoring and frequent inspection are critical for maintaining pipeline health such that safe and efficient functionalities of pipelines can be sustained for a longer period. 2.1 Sensor-based pipeline monitoring systems A sensor network platform developed by Jin and Eydgahi [4] for pipeline monitoring uses acoustics sensing devices such as Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) sensors This solution is based on the transmission and detection of lamb waves and uses a simple triangulation method for event localization. Sun et al [25] proposed a magnetic induction (MI)-based wireless sensor network framework to provide a real-time leakage detection and localization for monitoring underground pipelines. It detects and localizes leakage by jointly utilizing the measurements of different types of sensors that are located both inside and around the underground pipelines. Certain assumptions such as dried pipelines are not suitable for real-time operations [17]

Requirements for efficient monitoring and maintenance
How RAMP meets pipeline monitoring and maintenance requirements?
A technique for incident and sensor localization
RAMP design
Findings
Conclusions

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