Pipe-climbing robot

News

Independent Norwegian research laboratory SINTEF is developing a robot that will be able to climb vertically in gas, water and oil pipes, detecting leaks and monitoring their condition

Independent Norwegian research laboratory SINTEF is developing a robot that will be able to climb vertically in gas, water and oil pipes, detecting leaks and monitoring conditions as it moves along.

 

 

Using know-how garnered from previous SINTEF snake robots Anna Konda and AiKo, cybernetics and optical measurement scientists are designing the intelligent pipe inspection robot to move on wheels and be able to climb and navigate pipes down to 20cm in diameter.

 

Researcher Jens Thielemann at SINTEF ICT said: ‘We are currently developing the vision system than will enable the robot to navigate. In the meantime, we are using the Lego Mindstorm robot to collect the data to train the vision system. This Lego robot has a camera attached and moves around the pipe following a pre-programmed map. The next step will be to utilise the vision system as input to control the actual snake robot we are going to develop.’

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