Long-mover: Flexible Tube In-pipe Inspection Robot for Long Distance and Complex Piping

This paper presents a novel flexible tube type in-pipe inspection robot driven by pneumatics. The goal of this robot is to carry a wired camera for inspection and a nozzle for cleaning by moving over a distance of 50m or more in piping with a bore diameter of 50 to 100mm. To satisfy this requirement, we propose a new configuration consisting of grip units for two different lines and propulsion units for another line, which are connected in series one by one. This configuration enables the robot to keep the constant propulsion force regardless of the traveling distance, since each propulsion unit is capable of promoting between the intervals separated by two grip units, whose driving method is proposed as “Interval Separated Promotion (ISP).” Furthermore, we also introduce new pneumatic actuators such as a helically deformed actuator for grip units and a flexibly extendable actuator for propelling units. The experimental results by the developed prototype, named Long-mover, verify the validity of the proposed methods by showing the feasibility of passing through complex pipes, such as the vertical ones with different diameters and sharply curved ones with U-turn shape.