Strapdown Inertial Surveying for Internal Pipeline Surveys

The oil, gas, water, sewerage and chemical industries all operate vast networks of underground services to transport their products. The efficient and economic effectiveness of these services is supported by a continual program of pipeline inspection, monitoring and subsequent maintenance. A variety of inspection methods such as echo sounding, ultrasonic techniques, radiography and the use of television cameras can determine considerable information describing pipeline condition by mounting the necessary sensors on an instrumented vehicle propelled by the product flow through the pipeline. Fault location, an integral part of the pipeline investigation, is determined by the positioning capability of the inspection vehicle.