Pipe Inspection Robot

It is hard to specify all the requirements for in-pipe robots designed and used in some certain circumstances. But some factors should be considered: 1) Adaptability: Pipe robots designed for inspection should have adaptability to the change of the environments. 2) Multifunction: The robots should have more moving modes or forms. This will enlarge the application range of the pipe robot. 3) Efficiency: Due to the narrow space, robots should make full use of the capacity of the driving actuator. Multifunctional Mobile Unit 1 (MMU1) MMU1 is composed of rotators, driving arms, a stator, free rollers and one DC motor. Feature: It is equipped with one motor but provide two possible locomotion

modes, Normal working mode and assistant enhanced mode. When the MMU1 encounter an obstacle, concentric step for example, it will change its working mode autonomously and climb over the step.

Fig. 1. MMU1: Adaptive mobile mechanism. (a) The structure of MMU1. (b) The prototype of MMU1. Normal Working Mode: Because the resistance is not high in most of the time, the former driving arms thus rotate and the latter driving arms keeps still. MMU1 thus travels forward or backward in the pipe. Assistant Enhanced Mode: When MMU1 encounters an obstacle, the latter arms produce torque to help the former arms surmounting the obstacle.

MMU2 Structure MMU2 has both mobile ability and checking function, while only one DC motor and a solenoid are equipped. Feature: The motor fixed on the stator provides both torque of the driving rotator Thus, the working efficiency of the motor is increased.

and that of the detecting rotator.

Normal Working Mode: The driving motor rotates the driving arms, thus, the rotating arms generate traction force to propel the robot forward or backward. Detecting Mode: When the switching solenoid is electrified, and the constraint of the carrier disappears. Thus, the motor turns the detecting rotator and uses the detecting device to check the pipe.

Fig. 2. MMU2: A mobile mechanism with both driving and detecting function. (a) The structure of MMU2. (b) The prototype of MMU2. MMU3 Structure The pedals that are mounted on the MMU3 generate additional propelling force just as the function of a ships propeller, when the MMU3 is in the watery environment. Feature: Due to this special design, MMU3 is able to propel itself in two media: in

the dry pipe and in the watery pipe.

Fig. 3. MMU3: A mechanism integrates wheel and propeller function. (a) The structure of MMU3. (b) The prototype of MMU3. A modified mechanism is now proposed and fabricated see figure 4.

Fig. 4. A modified mechanism. References: Peng Li, Shugen Ma, Bin Li,Yuechao Wang, Changlong Ye, An In-pipe Inspection Robot based on Adaptive Mobile Mechanism Mechanical Design and Basic Experiments.// 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS07), 2007.10, pp. 2576-2581, San Diego, CA, USA. Peng Li, Shugen Ma, Bin Li,Yuechao Wang, Design of a Mobile Mechanism Possessing Driving Ability and Detecting Function for In-Pipe Inspection.// 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA08), 2008.5, pp. 3992-3997, Pasadena, CA, USA. Peng Li, Shugen Ma, Bin Li and Yuechao Wang, Multifunctional Mobile Units with a Same Platform for In-Pipe Inspection Robots.// 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS08), 2008.9, pp. 2643-2648, Nice, France.