Development of In-pipe Inspection Robot for Small Radius Pipelines

We have already reported the fundamental mechanism for an in-pipe inspection robot which can move in small radius (50 [mm] ) pipeline. The robot could go through elbows and T-joint, but only in horizontal pipelines. In this report, we describe a new in-pipe inspection robot that is extended to go through both horizontal and vertical pipelines with computer control. The robot has 2 steering units at both end, and each steering unit has 2 D.O.F to change the direction of the robot. In order to be controlled automatically, the robot should know the shape of pipeline, the status of the robot and locomotion distance, the robot has various sensors such as tactile sensors, an encoder and potentiometer. Using the information from these sensors, the robot can move along not only straight pipeline but also elbows or T-joint automatically.