This video describes the climbing of RSTAR in a pipe.
Climbing in a pipe is very tricky if you do not use a robot specifically designed for climbing. The transitioning between one configuration to another requires low friction while climbing requires high friction.
The transitions require to simultaneously control different mechanisms. Therefore, automatic climbing was more efficient than radio control by a human operator.
"Analysis of climbing in circular and rectangular pipes with a reconfigurable sprawling robot" by Ori Inbar and David Zarrouk, Mechanism and Machine Theory, 2022.
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094114X2200101X