Leakage points along pipelines that carry oil and gas need to be monitored and detected on a regular basis. However, because industrial pipes are structurally complex, convoluted and often narrow it becomes very difficult to facilitate the rapid checking and cleaning of their internal conditions.
These inspection checks are already reasonably effectively done with the help of robots. However, most existing robots do not posses active joints to help them sneak through difficult-to-reach places. Creeping through vertical pipelines is also rather too difficult for ordinary robots. A team of scientists at the Norway-based SINTEF (The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research) has been working on a robotic solution that could navigate along vertical pipelines with the guidance of light and image.
The team has prior experience of working on snake-like robots such as Anna Konda and AiKo. The scientists are now leveraging this experience to develop intelligent pipe inspection robots that are capable of climbing and navigating through all manner of pipelines.
Apart from their movement capabilities, Frost & Sullivan notes that these robots are also said to be able to determine their exact location along the pipeline. They are also capable of creeping into pipes with a diameter as small as 20 cm.
While the propulsion mechanism of the climbing robot is being researched by a team of cybernetics scientists, the visual system is being researched by a group of optics scientists. The objective of developing a visual system is to further enhance the robot’s navigational capabilities.
Simultaneously, the team is working on training the vision system with the help of data collected by a LEGO Mindstorms robot. With the help of a pre-programmed map, the LEGO robot, armed with a camera, would be able to navigate through the pipe. The scientists envision making this visual system a primary input towards controlling the movement of pipe inspection robots.
The vision system of the robot is based on a time-of-flight camera that employs inflected light to generate a bathymetric chart of the pipeline. The entire work is focused on combining the functionalities of the vision system and the control algorithm to help the robot easily navigate through the pipes. The robot is equipped with a built-in path description, which would help the robot determine where to go.
The team envisions developing a robot having 10-11 joint modules equipped with plastic wheels for navigation. The joint modules ensure proper distribution of weight along the joints.
For more information on Frost & Sullivan’s technical and market analysis contact Patrick Cairns, Frost & Sullivan, +27 (0)21 680 3274, [email protected], www.frost.com
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