Application of robotics in offshore oil and gas industry- A review Part II

In the past five years, researchers have improvised the existing in-pipe inspection robots by developing hybrid locomotion by combining two or more propulsion mechanism in achieving robust but yet flexible robot platform. In this paper, several hybrid robots have been reviewed and categorized according to their implemented locomotion system. The hybrid locomotion systems are caterpillar wall-pressed type, wheeled wall-pressed type and wheeled wall-pressing screw type. Each hybrid locomotion system is developed according to distinct design requirements for specific environment and might be not suitable for other application. The aim of this review is to highlight the current innovation of in-pipe robot for inspection. Based on the study, wall pressed type is the most popular main locomotion system in in-pipe robot development. Most of the prototypes are able to travel into branches with the same diameter as the pipe. Integration of caterpillar wheel gives more advantage in preventing motion singularity problem while surpassing branches. On the other hand, wheeled wall-pressed type provides advantage in high speed mobility. Wheeled wall pressing screw type gives the best navigation in curved pipe. None of these inventions show their ability in navigating bigger pipe to smaller branches.

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A Review: Hybrid Locomotion of In-pipe Inspection Robot

This paper reviewed several previous papers on work that have been done on the development of in-pipe inspection robot for the last 20 years. By sorting the types of the inspection robots they can be divided into several groups according to their locomotion. Each prototype has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on its design requirements and purpose of inspection. The prototypes have been tested in several experiments in order to verify its functionality and efficiency of inspection task. Some of the researchers ran simulations to validate the kinematic and modeling the mechanism of their own prototype. Developing in-pipe inspection robot can overcome the issues of human factor in labour intensive or dangerous work and also to act in inaccessible environment during repair and maintaining inside the pipeline.

Development of in-pipe inspection robot: A review

Modeling of the in-pipe inspection robot: a comprehensive review

This paper presents a mechanism for an in-pipe robot, called MRINSPECT VI (Multifunctional Robotic crawler for In-pipe inspection VI), which is under development for the inspection of gas pipelines with 150mm inside diameter. The mechanism is composed of multi-axial differential gear mechanism, wall pressing one, and driven by single motor. It is designed to adapt to the varying inside geometries of pipelines such as elbows by modulating the velocities of active wheels mechanically without any control effort. In this paper, the design features of the mechanism are detailed and its effectiveness is experimentally validated.

An In-pipe robot with multi-axial differential gear mechanism

This paper presents a new pipeline inspection robot that has multiple sensors for inspection of 80–100mm pipelines. The special feature of this robot is realization of driving and steering capability by using only two wheel chains. Compared to popularly employed pipeline robots using three wheel chains, the new design allows simple robot control and easy user interface, specially at T-branch. As another advantage, the flat shape of this robot allows mounting additional sensors on the both sides of the robot. The kinematics and three control modes are described. Finally, the performance of this robot system is verified by experimentation.

A flat pipeline inspection robot with two wheel chains

This paper presents a new pipeline inspection robot with a linkage type mechanical clutch, which is designed for inspection of pipelines with 100mm diameter. This robot has three powered wheel chains each of which has a mechanical clutch. The mechanical clutch is designed by using a parallel linkage mechanism. The kinematic model of the pipeline inspection robot is driven and its proto type has been developed. The performance of this robot system is verified by both simulation and experimentation.

Bae Lee

Papers

A flat pipeline inspection robot with two wheel chains

A pipeline inspection robot with a linkage type mechanical clutch