Design of a Novel Modular Serial Pipeline Inspection Robot

This paper presents a novel system design for a modular serial pipeline inspection robot, named RoboChain-I, which has the capability of actively deforming to adapt to changes in pipeline shape and diameter. RoboChain-I is specifically designed for inspecting small and medium-sized pipelines with inner diameters ranging from 17.5 cm to 44 cm, and exhibits high environmental adaptability. In contrast to conventional wheeled pipeline climbing robots, RoboChain-I offers a more flexible joint degrees of freedom setting, enabling it to navigate complex pipelines. The effectiveness of the new structure and control method of the pipeline inspection robot proposed was validated through experiments conducted on the ground and within straight and inclined pipelines. The results demonstrate that RoboChain-I has superior pipeline mobility performance.