Pipe inspection robots, Biomimetic Intelligent Mechatronics Lab, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan

Pipe inspection robot which can roll on the spot

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Cassiopeia 2 is a pipeline inspection robot which can pass through bent, branch, and even vertical pipes. Two spherical wheels attached on the head and tail of the robot enable rolling motion to change robot's posture around the pipe axis.

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AIRo-2.1 is a pipeline inspection robot to which minor modifications are added from the previous version

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AIRo-2.2 is a pipeline inspection robot which can pass through bent, branch and even vertical pipes. Two spherical wheels attached to the head and tail of the robot enable the rolling movement to change robot's orientation around the pipe axis.

Published in: Advanced Robotics, Volume 32, 2018 - Issue 1
Pages 37-50 | Received 30 Jan 2017, Accepted 04 Oct 2017, Published online: 27 Oct 2017

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AIRo-2.3s can control its joint angle and torque, and adapt to any directed bent pipe no matter how its orientation is. Stretching the drive wheels against the inner wall of pipes is essential for adapting robots to use in vertical pipes and slippery inner surfaces. To achieve this, series elastic actuation with a high reduction system and a polyurethane rubber is installed to sense the joint torque. Despite the short body length, a minimum number of the drive wheels, and a simple joint of one degree of freedom, more than 100 N constant traction force and a wide range of adaptive inner diameters (4-inch to 6-inch) are completed. After describing the configuration of the robot module, experiments to verify the performance in bent pipes are conducted.

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AIRo-2.5 was planned to demonstrate at the SXSW 2020, Austin, Texas, USA, but was canceled due to coronavirus breakout.
This video shows how the AIRo-2.5 passes through horizontal and vertical T-branches and how it selects a pathway.

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AIRo-5.1 is composed of two passive compliant joints and only one single active compliant joint. You can control the joint angle and the torque of the middle joint to adapt to bend, branch, vertical pipes as well as slippery surfaces. A series elastic actuator (SEA) with a high reduction system and an improved durable polyurethane rubber is installed to sense the joint torque. To smoothly pass through T-branches, an angle trajectory of the middle joint is calculated based on the pipe geometry and it is interpolated by a cosine curve.

[Specification of AIRo-5.1]
Adaptive pipe inner diameter: 4-5 inch
Total length (when extended): 0.51 m
Total weight (without cable): 2.37 kg
Max. moving speed: 0.08 m/s
Max. continuous traction force: 202 N (20.6 kgf)
Peak traction force: 808 N (82.4 kgf)
Max. continuous joint torque: 3.76 Nm
Peak joint torque: 15 Nm
Joint angular speed: 13.6 rpm (1.43 rad/s)
Nominal voltage: DC 24 V
Communication: Controller Area Network (CAN)

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