Development of a steerable in-pipe locomotive device with six braided tubes

Numerous studies have developed in-pipe locomotive devices to inspect pipes. However, it is difficult to achieve selective locomotion in a branched piping system. In this study, a novel steerable in-pipe locomotive device is proposed based on “a six-braided-tubes locomotive device,” which is an in-pipe locomotive device that is actuated by only six pneumatic inflatable tubes. It is one of the simplest in-pipe locomotive devices that is capable of forward and backward motion and can rotate in clockwise and counterclockwise directions along a pipe, can select the desired pathway in the branched pipe. In this paper, we discuss the background of pipe inspection, classify previously developed in-pipe locomotive devices, and clarify the aim of this study. Additionally, we also describe and extend the locomotive principles of six-braided-tubes locomotive devices. Moreover, we propose a novel attachment, termed steering hook, to enable steering in various types of branched systems. Finally, we experimentally confirm that the novel proposed principle allows the device to correct path selection in an in-pipe branched piping system.

[1]  Tokuji Okada,et al.  Development of a steerable, wheel-type, in-pipe robot and its path planning , 2005, Adv. Robotics.

[2]  T. Kaneko,et al.  In-pipe wireless micro locomotive system , 1999, MHS'99. Proceedings of 1999 International Symposium on Micromechatronics and Human Science (Cat. No.99TH8478).

[3]  Taro Nakamura,et al.  Development of a peristaltic crawling robot attached to a large intestine endoscope using bellows - type artificial rubber muscles , 2012, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[4]  Tokuji Okada,et al.  MOGRER: A vehicle study and realization for in-pipe inspection tasks , 1987, IEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation.

[5]  Shugen Ma,et al.  An in-pipe robot with underactuated parallelogram crawler modules , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[6]  Paolo Dario,et al.  A New Mechanism for Mesoscale Legged Locomotion in Compliant Tubular Environments , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[7]  Shugen Ma,et al.  Pathway selection mechanism of a screw drive in-pipe robot in T-branches , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE).

[8]  Shuichi Wakimoto,et al.  Novel design of rubber tube actuator improving mountability and drivability for assisting colonosocope insertion , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  Friedrich Pfeiffer,et al.  "MORITZ" a pipe crawler for tube junctions , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[10]  Woongsun Jeon,et al.  Development of high mobility in-pipe inspection robot , 2011, 2011 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII).

[11]  M H S Siqueira,et al.  The use of ultrasonic guided waves and wavelets analysis in pipe inspection. , 2004, Ultrasonics.

[12]  Enna Sachdeva,et al.  COCrIP: Compliant OmniCrawler in-pipeline robot , 2017, 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

[13]  Hitoshi Kimura,et al.  Hermetically-sealed flexible mobile robot “MOLOOP” for narrow terrain exploration , 2013, IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

[14]  Colin R. Brett,et al.  Validation of a pulsed eddy current system for measuring wall thinning through insulation , 1996, Smart Structures.

[15]  Jianzhong Shang,et al.  Development of Inchworm In-Pipe Robot Based on Self-Locking Mechanism , 2013, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[16]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Three-dimensional serpentine motion and lateral rolling by active cord mechanism ACM-R3 , 2002, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[17]  Hyouk Ryeol Choi,et al.  Novel Mechanism for In-Pipe Robot Based on a Multiaxial Differential Gear Mechanism , 2017, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[18]  Timothy M. Kowalewski,et al.  Serially Actuated Locomotion for Soft Robots in Tube-Like Environments , 2017, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[19]  Byung-Ju Yi,et al.  One pneumatic line based inchworm-like micro robot for half-inch pipe inspection , 2008 .

[20]  W. L. Anderson,et al.  A novel X-ray technique for inspection of steel pipes , 1994 .

[21]  Hideyuki Tsukagoshi,et al.  Tube actuator with drawing out drive aimed for the inspection in the narrow and curved path , 2010, 2010 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics.

[22]  Li Liu,et al.  Development of an in-pipe robot with two steerable driving wheels , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA).

[23]  Koichi Suzumori,et al.  Micro inspection robot for 1-in pipes , 1999 .

[24]  Toru Omata,et al.  A Twisted Bundled Tube Locomotive Device Proposed for In-Pipe Mobile Robot , 2015, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[25]  Hiroyuki Yaguchi,et al.  Wireless In-Piping Actuator Capable of High-Speed Locomotion by a New Motion Principle , 2013, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[26]  Toshio Takayama,et al.  Geometric Estimation of the Deformation and the Design Method for Developing Helical Bundled-Tube Locomotive Devices , 2017, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[27]  Toshio Takayama,et al.  Six-braided tube in-pipe locomotive device , 2015, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

[28]  Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari,et al.  Development of a Low Cost Small Sized In-Pipe Robot , 2012 .

[29]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  PipeTron series - Robots for pipe inspection , 2014, Proceedings of the 2014 3rd International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry.

[30]  Donald T. McBride,et al.  Nondestructive testing techniques , 1992 .

[31]  Satoshi Tadokoro,et al.  A high-speed locomotion mechanism using pneumatic hollow-shaft actuators for in-pipe robots , 2015, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).