Calculation and Simulation of Different Speeds of Each Wheel Leg of the Wall Pressing Three-plane Pipe Inspection Robot

This paper is about the study, calculation, and simulate the speeds of each leg of the three-leg pipe inspection robot. Wall Pressing Three-plane pipe inspection robot is a very popular type of pipe inspection robot. Such a robot will have a steering ability utilizing three identical motors that are connected to each of the three wheels of the robot by a mechanical means. The issue that needs to be considered here is the movement of the robot when passing through different kinds of pipe shapes (ex. Elbow) or different kinds of Joints (ex. T-section). The three-plane pipe inspection robot depends on wall pressing as attraction force so slipping inside the pipe is unacceptable. That means the speed of each leg relating to the other two legs has to be correctly calculated otherwise the robot will suffer a disorder movement inside the pipe. The paper will address the issue of calculating differences between the speed of each leg and how much it is important to synchronize the rotational speed of all motors when they change their speed in the presence of variable disturbances in torques. To maintain a correct speed when facing disturbances, the PID controller will be introduced as a solution. The PID should be tuned in regards to the properties of the selected motors and the input torques as they change through the movement. The robot will be designed to inspect 508mm pipes so all the equipment will be chosen according to that. The simulation of MATLAB will show a satisfying result when simulating the motor response that is enhanced by the use of the PID through the various cases.