Design of a Robot for Inspecting the Multishape Pipeline Systems

Abstract

Aiming at the question that most of the existing pipeline robots can only move in parts of common pipeline environments, in this study, we introduce a novel pipeline robot configuration with excellent environmental adaptability and obstacle avoidance capability for inspecting a more complex pipeline system. To ensure adaptability and mobility, the pipeline robot's general configuration was divided into three parts: the head, waist, and tail, with axisymmetric and planar symmetric structural distributions. Two active articulated joints connect the three sections of the pipeline robot, driving the head and tail to complete yaw and roll motions and allowing the pipeline robot to avoid raised obstacles and broken gaps. Furthermore, the pipeline robot can travel through annular gaps, straight pipelines with different diameters, and funnel-type pipelines due to the combination of scissor mechanism legs and a caterpillar track. Finally, a pipeline robot with the configuration and test bed with six common pipeline environments was built, and the obstacle avoidance ability and environmental adaptation experiments were conducted to evaluate the movement effectiveness. According to the experimental results, the pipeline robot can navigate smoothly within a complex pipeline environment. The pipeline robot in this setup has considerable potential in the real world.