Robotic Pipe Inspection: Low-Cost Device and Navigation System

Pipeline inspection is a necessary task in the industry, allowing for the identification of anomalies. The flow of materials through these pipes can lead to clogs, cracks, or discontinuities that reduce their carrying capacity. As a result, regular manual inspections are crucial. To address the need for safe and constant inspections, we propose an in-pipe robotic platform explicitly designed for inspecting galleries and pipes with 14 inches or larger diameters. The platform utilizes cameras and other sensors to visualize and identify anomalies. The robot construction primarily uses low-cost materials, including 3D-printed polymers and its locomotion mechanism is based on tracks, which can be adjusted to navigate diverse piping conditions. The modular robot’s software enables the implementation of autonomous features such as a state machine and an artificial vector field-based navigation system. The proposed autonomous navigation system only requires planar laser information, eliminating the need for mapping or localization data and reducing the impact of communication problems during the inspection process. This work presents the development of the robotic platform, including its mechanical and electronic design and the embedded software. Preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of producing cost-effective alternatives for inspecting industrial pipes.