Autonomous pipeline inspection and maintenance robot with inch worm mobile mechanism

A new type of mobile robots with the inch worm mechanism is presented in this paper for inspecting pipelines from the outside of pipe surfaces under hostile environments. This robot, Mark III, is made after the successful investigation of the prototypes, Mark I and II, which can pass over obstacles on pipelines, such as flanges and T-joints and others. Newly developed robot, Mark III, can move vertically along the pipeline and move to the adjacent pipeline for the inspection. The sensors, infra ray proximity sensor and ultra sonic sensors and others, are installed to detect these obstacles and can move autonomously controlled by the microprocessor. The control method of this robot can be carried out by the dual control mode proposed in this paper.