Abstract
To repair leaking pipelines for oil, natural gas and other dangerous media, a kind of pipeline sealing robot is proposed. The device is mainly divided into a robot drive unit, connection unit, and blocking unit. The robot drive unit is used to pull the blocking unit, allowing it to move in the pipeline. The connection unit is used to connect the robot drive unit and the blocking unit. The blocking unit is used to complete the repair at the leakage point. When the robot operates, the drive unit drags the blocking device to the pipeline leakage location, and the front camera can detect the size and shape of the leakage hole. The sealing unit is located at the leakage point, an airbag is inflated, and the adhesive in it is used to seal and repair the leak. Two performance indices (climbing performance and curve passing performance) are evaluated when the robot drive unit is walking. A 3D model of the robot is established, and the performance index of the robot is simulated and analyzed using virtual prototype technology. An experimental platform is built for verification. The conclusions are as follows: (1) A spring with a 13 N/mm rigidity yielded the best performance, and the robot could crawl up a 37° slope. (2) When the deflection angle of the driving wheel was set to 30°, the robot could smoothly pass a bend with a radius of curvature of 500 mm. Thus, the robot performance met the design requirements.
Highlights
With the widespread application of fluid energy [1], such as oil and natural gas [2], pipeline transportation has become an increasingly important energy transportation method [3]
With the large-scale development of pipeline engineering [5], the service lives of pipelines have been prolonged [6], and accidents caused by human damage, media corrosion, and other factors leading to pipeline leakage have increased annually [7]
The driving wheel deflection angle of the robot was set to 25◦, and the other parameters were consistent with those described above
Summary
With the widespread application of fluid energy [1], such as oil and natural gas [2], pipeline transportation has become an increasingly important energy transportation method [3]. Ho Moon Kim et al [19], a scholar at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, proposed a wheeled in-tube robot based on a multi-axis differential gear mechanism, called MRINSPECT VII This robot had a simple structure and was easy to control, but the power source capacity was small and the robot could slip. This robot could complete complex movements, but its body drive system was too complicated, the cost was high, and the speed was difficult to control [23]. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the different movement methods shown in Table 1 and considering the complex working environment of the plugging and repairing robot designed in this study, we selected the spiral driven type robot [28]. The rationality and superiority of the robot design was verified
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