Development of In-Pipe Robot for Assisting Borewell Rescue Operations

Abstract

In recent decades, with great strides taken in the field of automation and significant growth in living standards, modern industry has been increasingly inclined to depend on pipelines for raw materials. Some of these pipelines are borewells dug deep into the ground to obtain underground water. Once these borewells run dry; ideally, they should be sealed. Due to negligence, some of these wells are not appropriately sealed, consequently leading to children falling in them unwittingly. The rescue of the child is greatly hampered due to lack of knowledge of the child’s condition. The urgency of the rescue depends on the condition of the child and it is paramount to have information regarding the child. Robotics is an area which can be explored to achieve this objective. In-pipe robots are currently being used to inspect pipelines but they are still in the development stage. An efficiently designed robot can be used to accurately determine the child’s status and hence save capital and manpower. This work illustrates an innovative method to assess the condition of the victim by analyzing various details like the depth at which the child is stuck, detection of harmful gases present, temperature, humidity conditions and live feed of the victim using an in-pipe robot.