Final Year Project Proposal

Electronic Engineering

TANK WALL CRAWLER ROBOT

Website (FYP): www.tankcrawler.co.nr

Submitted in Partial fulfillment

Of the requirements of EL490
In the

Department of Electronic Engineering

Usman Institute of Technology
2013-2014
Date of submission:23-05-2013

Group Members:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Muhammad Umair (Leader)

Abeer Muhammad Sabir Mulik
Ahsan Naim
Adeel Khan

Preferred Internal Teachers:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Sir Raza Jaffri

Sir Shiraz Latif
Sir Sameer Ahmed
Sir Salman Jaffri
Miss Adiba Jaffer
Sir Waseem Zeeshan

1. Introduction
1.1

Overview:

The main goal of every industry is to reduce the losses and prevention of the future accidents. In Oil
refineries, Cooking Oil manufacturing industries and many more use oil storage tanks. Thus a yearly
inspection of these tanks is necessary for every company to avoid major fatal accidents. Because of the
environment and other factors such as corrosion the tank walls become weak so yearly measurement of
thickness of walls of tank is necessary.
In the modern world human safety is the most important aspect in industry as well as in other walks of
life. Due to the risk factor involvement in inspection of huge and high rise tanks inspection the cost of
labor is so much and most of the inspection companies are liable to give health insurance in occurrence
of any unfortunate accident. Thats why the interest in the development of climbing robots has grown
rapidly in recent years. Climbing robots are useful devices that can be adopted in a variety of
applications such as maintenance, building, inspection and safety. Thus this document proposes a
feasible design of robot which can climb the wall of non-insulated oil tank in the field and would
measure the thickness through a thickness measuring gauge. Thus we are going to try to study and
understand the complexities and problems related to electrical and its mechanical design. The main
objective of doing this project is to implement the knowledge we gained and to solve a practical
problem faced in industry using our Engineering knowledge.

1.2

Objective:

The main objective of this proposal is to develop a tank wall inspection crawler robot which would crawl
over the surface of the tank and would measure the thickness of the oil tank wall. We would analyze and
study the aspects related to the structure and controlling of the crawler via some controller circuit. Our
project would be facing problem related to the adhesion to the tank wall and the controlling of crawler.
Following aspects of related to the field of electronics of the crawler would be studied and implemented
in detail:

Study of different types of motors according to its weight and precision.

Microcontroller Usage.
Relay system for applying coupling solution.
Battery charging and the study of different types of batteries.
Powerful magnet to attach the crawler to the tank wall.
Thickness gauge measurement technique and fetching its data.

These are the few core topics which would be discussed and implement in our FYP.

1.3

Literature Survey:

Oil tank wall crawler robot is hot new technology that can be applied in many areas.
1. WALLBOT
Carnegie Mellon's adhesive-enhanced wall crawler, At Carnegie Mellon University, gecko-inspired robots
are already climbing rough surfaces such as painted walls, wooden doors, and bricks, and can even turn
corners.

Photo: Harsha Prahlad/SRI International

2. STICKYBOT
[We're] trying to get robots to go places that they haven't been able to go before, and climbing is a kind of
new territory for four-legged robots, says Mark Cutkosky, a mechanical engineering professor at Stanford
University.
Wall-climbing bots could scale buildings or creep up windows, secretly spying for hours. They could also be
used for search-and-rescue operations

Photo: Metin Sitti/Michael Murphy/Carnegie Mellon University

Photo: Mark Cutkosky/Stanford University

3. STATIC CLINGER
Conductive foils on the treads of SRI Internationals wall-climbing robot form an electrostatic bond with the
wall.

4. Development of wall inspection robots

A.NISHI, H.MIYAGI and K.ISHIHARA at Faculty of Engineering, Miyazaki University developed a
wall inspection robot which can fly using its high speed propeller and can land safely to the
ground.

3 Industrial/Electronics Application:
There are various number of companies in Pakistan which provide NDT (Non- Destructive
Testing) services as continuous monitoring and inspection of pipelines, Tanks, Boilers, Turbines
etc. is necessary. This thickness measurement robot is so useful in field as it is easy to use all
the data can be stored easily and no life hazard in this method some NDT companies in Pakistan
have this robot (imported) but due to the initial high cost of this robot the charges of inspection
is also high.
Since field of electronics has enormous branches and from Control systems in Nuclear plant to
Intensive care unit of hospital in every field electronics and it`s usage can be seen. This field of
inspection and testing is so much important because with testing one can easily rectify the
problems by welding or replacing and this increases the whole efficiency as well as the life of
that industry.
Thus our main task is to build this robot but with reduced price but with precise movement
although we are aware of the fact that it can`t be perfect but our main goal would be to reach
the level of perfection with full understanding about what we are going to do.

Thickness measurement
Visual inspection of tank
Pitting monitoring by Visual inspection
Ultrasonic inspection of welds and joints (Optional feature if Ultrasonic sensor attached)
Height measurement of tank
Data storing is easy

Can be used in long horizontal pipe lines for visual inspection

3.1 Required Resources:

Thickness Equipment:

Following are the Components required in building this robot:

-Micro controller
-Stepper Motors (with gears for efficiency)
-Camera for Visual Inspection
-Thickness Measurement Equipment
-Coupling solution pumping
-Relay system to apply coupling solution before sensor is placed (Mechanical system)
- Other electronic components for making of different Modules regarding controlling
We would buy all the electronic components from the market but the Thickness measurement
Equipment is expensive that`s why we would take it on rent from a company.

3.2 Cost Breakup:

Components

Prices

Micro Controller

3985

Stepper Motor

6470

Wires

6000

Thickness Meter

2500

Relays

5783

Data Transmitting Module

3587

Driving Module

7784

Camera

14500

Components

5500

Body of Robot

5200

Gearing Mechanism

4623

Total

65932

Remarks

Data transmitting wires

Rent Price per day (Actual
price= 50000)

Time Division Diagram:

ELECTRICAL
INPUT

VISUAL

WIRING

INSPECTION

CONNECTION

WATER

ROBOT

COUPLANT

BODY

THICKNESS

STEPPER

SENSOR

MOTOR

REMOTE

MOTOR DRIVING

CONTROL

Controller
MODULE

MODULE

Block Diagram:

Battery (Input)

Wires (External
Connection)

Robot Body
(Chassis, Magnets etc.)

Stepper Motors
Tank Crawler Robot

Circuits (Phase 5, 6, 7)

Thickness Measuring
Equipment

Water Coupling
Mechanism

Camera for Pitting Photographs

3.3 Skill Attained:

There are various kinds of skills attained while making of this project Following are the possible skills
attained while making of this project:

Motors
Motor Controlling circuits
Microcontroller
Relays
Coupling Solution pumping and its types
Battery charging and different types of batteries
Thickness gauge measurement
For visual inspection usage of Camera
Different types of magnets to attach the crawler on Tank walls
Signal transmission techniques
Gear assembly for motors
Speed controlling of motors
Robot Body weight measurement
Presentation skills