Stable motion analysis and verification of a radial adjustable pipeline robot

This paper presents a design and stability analysis of a crawler-type pipeline robot which has the radial adjustment ability and can adapt to the changing of pipe diameter, therefore the environment adaptability of the robot is improved. To analysis the motion stability of the robot, the posture model of the robot that works in different pipes, including elbow and straight pipe are established, some undesirable movements are analyzed by using mechanical analysis, then the essentials for stable motion of the pipeline robot in elbow and straight pipe are obtained. By getting the attitude information during the motion process, experiment results are consistent with the theoretical analysis, and the developed pipeline robot is suitable for the application of engineering pipe.