Walking Robot Applied to the Tube Inspection Activity

Over the last years, the industry increased its production and optimized the transport of items through pipelines. Despite the easy handling of sub-products, there are some problems with using the transport through tubes, such as the difficulty in maintenance and in inspection to predict future troubles. Another recurring problem in industries is the sliding of the maintenance robot along the inner walls of the tube, which can cause the robot to lose the reference of its location. In this way, the study presented here shows the type and preliminary dimensional synthesis of a new walking capsule robot that has the ability to move inside a tube. The use of legs instead of wheels increases the contact surface area between the robot and the tube, allowing greater slip resistance.