Design of a Bidirectional Telescopic In-Pipe Robot

Millions of miles of pipeline are carrying fluent energy for our daily life, including water, natural gas, crude oil and nuclear materials. Micro in-pipe robot offers an effective technical method for pipe inspection and maintenance. A new bidirectional telescopic in-pipe robot was presented in this paper. In the first place, the whole structure of the in-pipe robot was described, illustrating its functions of motion principle and telescopic mechanisms, respectively. Then the inverting discipline and the driving force of mechanisms were analyzed in detail. The supporting lead screw nut was selected according to robots characteristic requirements, and its structural stability requirements were met after a series of verification. In the end, the buffer spring that satisfied with the restriction analysis was successfully designed.