Development of a Pipeline Inspection Robot for the Standard Oil Pipeline of China National Petroleum Corporation

Hui Li,Jianwei Zhang,Ruiqin Li,Pengyu Zhang

doi:10.3390/app10082853

Hui Li, Jianwei Zhang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082853

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Abstract

The periodic inspection for oil pipelines is required due to the deterioration over time. A multitude of factors brings such a deterioration, from corrosion, leaks, to cracks, which may lead to blowbacks and cause the damages for operators and the environments. With the progress of robotics technology, various types of mobile robots and mechanisms are designed to cope with this issue. Rather than the assignment of human workers in hazardous environments, the deployment of such kinds of inspection robots can take on this duty more time-efficiently and safely, preventing the human workers from the high-risk of the inspection task in the oil pipelines. This paper presents a novel design of a mobile robot for oil pipeline inspection, which is cooperated with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). With the improvement of the previous inspection robot used in CNPC’s standard oil pipelines, the newly designed robot is composed of six groups of symmetrical supporting wheels, and a more powerful motors as well as a more advanced control system. This new design endows the oil pipeline inspection robot with better performance on six aspects: traction, obstacle-adaptivity, operation endurance, gradeability, visual perception, and stability. The field testing results at multiple oil transfer stations across several months demonstrate the reliability of this mobile robot under various severe situations in China and validate its performance in the studied aspects.

Highlights

In the past few decades, petroleum has always been one of the most important resources in the progressing of human civilization
This paper presents a novel pipeline inspection robot that has satisfied the requirements of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and basically focuses on the experimental results in this project
This paper presents a newly designed oil pipeline inspection robot for deployment in the standard oil pipelines of the CNPC

Summary

Introduction

In the past few decades, petroleum has always been one of the most important resources in the progressing of human civilization. The periodic inspection of their oil pipelines is vital, where the deployments of these pipelines are everywhere in oil refineries and oil transfer stations (Figure 1). The deterioration of these pipelines cannot be avoided as oil is transported over time. Once the oil pipelines get deterioration, it could bring the owners of these corporations huge economic loss during the processes of oil transportation. The damage is not merely confined to the aspect of the economy. The pipeline corrosion and cracks, which are commonly caused by the impurities in the pipelines, could lead to severe soil/ocean pollution or even explosions

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