Development of mobile minirobots for in pipe inspection tasks

Transcription

1 60 ISSN MECHANIKA Nr.6(68) Development of moile miniroots for in pipe inspetion tsks O. Tătr*, D. Mândru**, I. Ardelen*** *Tehnil University of Cluj-Npo, C. Dioviiu 5, 006 Cluj-Npo, Romni, E-mil: **Tehnil University of Cluj-Npo, C. Dioviiu 5, 006 Cluj-Npo, Romni, E-mil: ***Tehnil University of Cluj-Npo, C. Dioviiu 5, 006 Cluj-Npo, Romni, E-mil: Introdution Rootis is one of the fstest growing engineering fields of tody. Roots re designed to remove the humn ftor from lour intensive or dngerous work nd lso to t in inessile environment. The use of roots is more ommon tody thn ever efore nd it is no longer exlusively used y the hevy prodution industries. The inspetion of pipes my e relevnt for improving seurity nd effiieny in industril plnts. These speifi opertions s inspetion, mintenne, lening et. re expensive, thus the pplition of the roots ppers to e one of the most ttrtive solutions. The pipelines re the mjor tools for the trnsporttion of drinkle wter, effluent wter, fuel oils nd gs. A lot of troules used y piping networks ging, orrosion, rks, nd mehnil dmges re possile. So, ontinuous tivities for inspetion, mintenne nd repir re strongly demnded [, ]. The roots with flexile (dptle) struture my ost dptility to the environment, espeilly to the pipe dimeter, with enhned dexterity, mnoeuvrility, pility to operte under hostile onditions. The wheeled roots re the simplest, most energy effiient, nd hve the est potentil for long rnge. Loding the wheels with springs, roots lso offer some dvntges in mnoeuvrility with the ility to dpt to in-pipe unevenness, move vertilly in pipes, nd sty stle without slipping in pipes.. These types of roots lso hve the dvntge of esier minituriztion. The key prolem in their design nd implementtion onsists in omining the pity of self-moving with tht of self-sustining nd the property of low weight nd dimension. A very importnt design ojetive is represented y the dptility of the in-pipe roots to the inner dimeters of the pipes.. Anlysis of the linkges in the struture of dptle in-pipe roots Most of the in-pipe roots tke the mehnisms derived from severl si mehnisms or their omintions. For exmple, the roots in Figs.,,,,, re sed on the mehnisms given in Figs.,,, respetively, [, ]. In Fig., the piture nd the kinemti sheme of the in-pipe inspetion root lled MRINSPECT I (Multifuntionl Rooti rwler for INpipe inspection) [] is presented. It hs six slider-rnk mehnisms, rrnged t 0 one from eh other, eh of these hving driving wheel. The wheels re tuted y DC motors, nd elt trnsmission. The root is designed s the springs to tute the mehnisms with equl fores. This struture llows the root to move within pipes with horizontl, vertil, nd elow-typed portions. The movement of the root within T juntions is not possile. k pipe rm (link) wheel k spring Fig. MRINSPECT I in-pipe root () nd its si mehnism () Fig. MRINSPECT II () nd its orresponding mehnism () Another type of mehnism whih n ssure the dptility of roots to different pipe dimeters is the modified pntogrph, used in the struture of the MRINSPECT II root (Fig. ) []. This mehnism llows the movement of the wheels long the rdil diretion. This spet is very importnt, euse distortion fores no longer pper, s the root psses over the ostles. For the ontrol of the pushing fore over the inner surfe of the pipe, liner tutor nd two position sensors re used. The in-pipe inspetion root MRINSPECT IV, presented in Fig. ontins mehnism whih llows it to dpt its struture to the pipes dimeter. This mehnism helps lso to ssure the diretion of the root, when it psses through elows nd T juntions []. Three types of pipe inspetion roots, Thes-I, Thes-II nd Thes-III, for the gs pipes of 50 mm nd 50 mm in dimeters re shown in Fig. [].

2 6 Stopper Spring Other strutures of this type of roots presented in the literture [-5] re shown in the following Figs The developed in-pipe miniroots Slider Linkges Centrl linkge supporter The first prototype - In Fig. 6, it is given the first onstrutive vrint of n in-pipe inspetion miniroot, whih ws designed, modelled nd developed. The miniroot ontins three linkges mehnisms, symmetrilly disposed long the longitudinl xis of the root [9, 0]. F r r L D/ K F s l Θ x T/ Fig. MRINSPECT IV () nd its orresponding mehnism () rolling wheel spring wire free roller DC motor plnetry ger Mehnil prdox plnetry ger drive Miro mer Miro hnd Pneumti wole motor Plnetry wheel mehnism Flexile link Eletromgneti motor universl joint lef springs wheel pipe d frme motor () motor () inlintion mesurement wheels () drive wheel () wormger slider min frme Fig. Moile Roots Thes-I () Thes-II (), Thes-III () nd their orresponding mehnisms e Fig. 5 In-pipe inspetion roots with dptle struture: RooSn (), Pipe Crwler (), Root for inh pipes (), Mogler (d), HELI-PIPE (e), Shemes of tried wheels root (f) f

3 6 The fore tht the miniroot mehnism exerises on the pipe wlls is generted with the help of n extensile spring. The helil spring disposed on the entrl xis ssures the repositioning of the struture, in the se of the pipe dimeters vrition. The omponents of the miniroot re, (Fig. 6, ): helil spring, trnsltionl element, tutor support, worm wheel, 5 worm ger, 6 tutor, 7 entrl xis, 8 link, 9 wheel. The wheels t the k re driven y three DC SANKO motors, through redution trnsmissions. The weight of the miniroot (the weight of urrent feeding wires is lso onsidered) is 987 g, nd the wheels hve the rdius r = 5 mm nd the length 7 mm; the omponent elements hve the lengths: h = 0 mm, h = 70 mm, h = 05 mm. In the present pper, we proposed two wheeled type in-pipe miniroots hrterized y n dptle struture sed on linkges mehnisms. Compred with the ove-presented roots, our prototypes re hrterized y simple struture nd kinemtis, smll numer of tutors, light weight, low power onsumption. The tution of the driver wheels is mde through two worm gers with z =, z = 5. This miniroot hs movement pities for inspetion in 0-00 mm dimeter pipes in horizontl or vertil onfigurtion. In the root s struture, there is mehnism (Fig. 8, ), omposed of trnsltionl input element, nd two struturl (Assur) groups RRR, (EmT() + RRR(,) + RRR(,5) ). 0 E H F 5 7 E B θ E B E F D RRR D B E B B h C A RRR O h A h 6 C O O Em T A F C 6 D Fig. 6 The D model of the miniroot in pipe (, ), omponents of miniroot () Fig. 7 Piture of the developed in-pipe miniroot Fig. 8 Elementry mehnism () nd the struturl sheme of the miniroot () The root s height n e determined with the reltion ( h OA, h = BC = DE h = CF ) =, ( ) H = r+ d + h os θ () where r is the rdius of the wheels nd d is the distne EE (EE = d = 8 mm). The mximum nd minimum height of the root n e determined sed on the ngle θ, (θ 5 60 ) nd on the lengths of the elements h, h, with the reltion [] ( ) H = r+ d + h os θ () min/ mx mx/ min where θ min nd θ mx re the mximum nd minimum limits of the ngle θ. The miniroot is powered through wires nd it is ontrolled with the id of miroontroller ATMEL Atmeg855. An interfe relized in Delphi softwre ws developed. The drive DC motors n e powered with the voltge etween - V. The presented struture llows the usge of CCD mer for pipe inspetion or other devies needed in deteting of mlfuntion in the pipes (remote-ontrolled lser mesuring systems, sensors). In Fig. 9 the D model of the miniroot in urved pipe is illustrted.

4 6 For pipes with elows (tuulr network in T or L shpe) we propose the usge of miniroot whih is mde of two modules onneted with spheril joint. The model of this struture, whih will e developed in the ner future, is presented in Fig. 0. on the min xis of the miniroot (module no. ). Trnsmission of motion from the driving motor to the wheels of the miniroot is relized using three trnsmissions with gers (Fig. ). The DC motors equipped with speed reduer n e powered with the voltge etween -6 V. The mximum urrent is 50 ma nd mximum torque is 0 Nm. n R D G Fig. 9 D model of the miniroot in urved pipe ME n M E Fig. Trnsmission with gers in the struture of the miniroot Fig. 0 D model of the miniroot in tuulr network pipe in T () or L () shpe The seond prototype - Another onstrutive solution tht uses similr struture with the first prototype is presented in the Fig.. ME G D E B B h B A h θ h C O F One of the most importnt issues in the design of the mehnism from the struture of the root is how to otin the trtion power enough to pull instrumenttion nd the root itself. On the ondition tht the wheels do not slip over pipe surfe, the trtion fore y wheel is proportionl to the frition oeffiient nd pressing fore etween the wheel nd the pipe surfe. Sine the frition oeffiient depends on the wheel mteril nd surfe ondition of pipe, the link mehnisms tht re le to djust the wll pressing fore re to e designed. We note: worm,,, gers, z = one thred, z = teeth. Denoting with n M the motor rottion frequeny nd with n R motor wheel rottion frequeny from the expression of ger rtio i n = () M MR = iii nr E G A O The ngulr speed of the driving wheels of the miniroot is otined D C F n z = () R n M z For the development of modulr rooti system seond module hving in its struture the sme mehnism (Fig. ) ws relized. Fig. Struturl sheme () nd photogrph of the miniroot (prototype ) () It is more ompt from the onstrutive view point nd uses single DC motor for tution, disposed Fig. Seond module with the sme struture Using the two modules (Fig. nd Fig. ) onneted y universl joint prototype of modulr rooti

5 6 system with dptle struture, s is presented in Fig., ws developed. The first module (Fig. ) genertes trtion fore. The joint disposed y the two modules of the root offers the pity of orienttion of this one. The seond module is neessry for the trnsporttion of the neessry equipment for performing the inpipe inspetion. Edition, p. 0. Tătr, O., Mândru, D., Ros, V. Agriulturl pipe networks mintenne using rooti systems.-pro. of the 5th Int. Symposium Atul Tsks on Agriulturl Engineering.-Optij, Croti, 007, p O. Tătr, D. Mândru, I. Ardelen MOBILIŲ MINIROBOTŲ, SKIRTŲ VAMZDYNŲ DIAGNOSTIKOS UŽDAVINIAMS, KŪRIMAS R e z i u m ė Fig. The photogrph of the modulr rooti system. Conlusions In this pper two wheeled-type in-pipe miniroots re proposed. A very importnt design gol of these rooti systems is the dptility to the inner dimeters of the pipes. Thus, the studied miniroots re hrterized y n dptle struture, sed on linkge mehnisms. The prototypes were designed in order to inspet pipes with vrile dimeters within 0 nd 00 mm. The modulr rooti system is still in the phse of development. Referenes. Tătr, O., Mătieş, V., Mândru, D. Mini nd Miroroots. -Romni: Todeso Pulishing House, p. (in Romnin).. Roh, S.G., Ryew, S.M., Choi, H.R. Development of differentilly driven in-pipe inspetion root for underground gs pipelines.-pro. of Int. Symposium on Rooti, 00, p / SMIRT.pdf e.jpg. 6. Okd, T., Snemori, T. MOGRER-A Vehile study nd reliztion for in-pipe inspetion tsks.-ieee J. of Rootis nd Automtion, v. RA-, No6, 987, p Suzumori, K., Miygw, T., Kimur, M., Hsegw, Y. Miro inspetion root for -in pipes. -IEEE/ASME Trnstions on Mehtronis, v., No, 999, p Stte-of-the-rt review In-Pipe-Assessment Root Pltforms, Contrt # DE-FC6-0NT6, Crnegie Mellon University -The Rootis Institute, 00.-8p. 9. Tătr, O., Mândru, D. Development wheeled in - pipe roots for inspetion-explortion tsks.-pro. of the 6th Int. Conf. Reserh nd Development in Mehnil Industry RDMI 006, Budv, Montenegro, CD-ROM Ngrinėjmos minitiūrinių rootizuotų sistemų pnudojimo glimyės vmzdynų dignostiki, tyrimui ir ptrnvimui. Stripsnyje detlii ptrts utorių indėlis šioje srityje. Apiūdinti du utorių sukurti vmzdynms skirti minirooti. Pgrindinis dėmesys skirims moilumui vmzdyno viduje ir titinkmoms vykdymo sistemoms. Pteikim kelets funkinių hrkteristikų (pvz.. mksimlus/minimlus vidinis vmzdžio skersmuo). O. Tătr, D. Mândru, I. Ardelen DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE MINIROBOTS FOR IN PIPE INSPECTION TASKS S u m m r y The possiilities to use miniturized rooti system for inspetion, explortion nd mintenne of the pipes re highlighted. In this pper, the uthors ontriution in this field is disussed. Two in-pipe miniroots developed y the uthors re desried. The efforts re foused on the in-pipe moility nd orresponding tution systems. Severl funtionl hrteristis (e.g. the mximum /minimum inner pipe dimeter) re given. O. Татар, Д. Мандру, И. Арделеан РАЗРАБОТКА МОБИЛЬНЫХ МИНИРОБОТОВ ДЛЯ ВНУТРЕННЕЙ ДИАГНОСТИКИ ТРУБОПРОВОДОВ Р е з ю м е Обсуждаются возможности использования миниатюрных роботизированных систем для диагностики, проверки и обслуживания трубопроводов. В статье подробно обсужден личный вклад авторов в этом направлении. Характеризованы два трубопроводных миниробота, разработанные авторами. Особое внимание уделено вопросам мобильности внутри труб и соответствующим системам приводов. Представлены некоторые функциональные характеристики (например, максимальный/минимальный внутренний диаметр трубы). Reeived Septemer 05, 007