DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBOT DESIGN FOR INSPECTION OF LOW-PRESSURE GAS PIPELINES

Abstract

During the manufacture of gas pipelines, a number of defects may occur that cannot be noticed before the gas pipeline is put into operation. The presence of such defects can lead to the deterioration of operational properties and the development of damage during operation. Such defects include dents, ovality, corrugations, etc. In addition, damage to gas pipelines can be caused by mechanical effects of the environment, for example, the spread of vibrations during the underground laying of gas pipelines under highways. Such damage includes the formation of cracks (longitudinal or transverse), abrasion of the pipeline, subsidence of pipes, corrosion, etc. There are a number of methods for detecting these defects and damages. One of the most common methods is the method of non-destructive control of pipelines and their inspection using specialized robotic equipment. The paper proposes the design of robotic equipment, the main purpose of which is to inspect low-pressure gas pipelines. Since low-pressure steel gas pipelines are characterized by a small pipe diameter of less than 100 mm, the main requirement for the proposed robot is high cross-country ability in the pipe plane with small overall dimensions. The achievement of small dimensions in the proposed robot design is achieved by distributed control of local robot motors, which receive commands from the master controller. The main controller is controlled through the developed control program.

The paper shows the results of modeling the robot's passability in pipes of different diameters corresponding to the diameters of low and medium pressure gas pipelines, as well as modeling the robot's passability when turning the pipe and reducing the pipe diameter. The modeling results showed problems with the passage of pipelines with a diameter of 116 mm, which corresponds to medium-pressure gas pipelines. That is, the main purpose of the proposed robot design is to inspect low-pressure gas pipelines. The paper also presents the results of the actual inspection of the passability of the assembled prototype of the proposed pipeline inspection robot.