Research on Passing Ability and Climbing Performance of Pipeline Plugging Robots in Curved Pipelines

To repair leaking pipelines for oil, natural gas and other dangerous media, a kind of pipeline sealing robot is proposed. The device is mainly divided into a robot drive unit, connection unit, and blocking unit. The robot drive unit is used to pull the blocking unit, allowing it to move in the pipeline. The connection unit is used to connect the robot drive unit and the blocking unit. The blocking unit is used to complete the repair at the leakage point. When the robot operates, the drive unit drags the blocking device to the pipeline leakage location, and the front camera can detect the size and shape of the leakage hole. The sealing unit is located at the leakage point, an airbag is inflated, and the adhesive in it is used to seal and repair the leak. Two performance indices (climbing performance and curve passing performance) are evaluated when the robot drive unit is walking. A 3D model of the robot is established, and the performance index of the robot is simulated and analyzed using virtual prototype technology. An experimental platform is built for verification. The conclusions are as follows: (1) A spring with a 13 N/mm rigidity yielded the best performance, and the robot could crawl up a 37° slope. (2) When the deflection angle of the driving wheel was set to 30°, the robot could smoothly pass a bend with a radius of curvature of 500 mm. Thus, the robot performance met the design requirements.