Jackson-Mills, George Henry (2020) Magnetic Locomotion for In-Pipe Inspection Robots. PhD thesis, University of Leeds.
Abstract
Pipeline Inspection Gauge’s, (PIGs) currently inspect 95.4% of the United Kingdom’s National Transmission System (NTS) for the transportation of natural gas. The remaining 4.6% found in Above Ground Installations (AGIs) is deemed ”unpiggable” due to its complex geometry. Current robotic technology entering these pipelines requires expensive modifications to the pipeline to gain inspection access. A system that can bypass modifying the pipe and complete a condition inspection could generate a minimum saving of £60 million and 2145 tonnes of CO2 over a 20 year period. This thesis explores new approaches towards the robotic inspection of ferrous pipeline systems with the design and development of a wheeled magnetic robot for sub 100mm pipelines. The work begins with a thorough literature review surrounding the field of in-pipe robotics. The target environment is analysed and the requirements and specification of the robot are generated. Methods of creating magnetic traction wheels are explored and a rubber coated flux plate magnetic array wheel is developed and tested experimentally. The developed flux plate array wheels were found to channel the power of 6 rare-earth magnets into a single wheel contact point and created a force equal to that of the 6 magnets (83N) combined at the cost of a 90% reduced field depth. The application of rubber coating increased the frictional co-efficient μs of the wheels from 0.27 to 0.71, at the cost of halving the contact force to a mean of 41N. A high level LabVIEW control system was developed to communicate with the robot’s micro-controller over wireless Bluetooth using a custom serial protocol to minimise the message size for speed. Conceptual mechanical designs were conceived and two systems chosen to suit requirements for a 2-inch (50.8mm) pipeline, and a 4-inch (101.6mm) pipeline were developed further. A robust prototype of the 4-inch robot was fabricated using 3D printing techniques, the design was preferred for its curved wheelbase geometry, allowing it to negotiate convex and concave corner cases. Unlike current magnetic systems of its size the robot was found to complete all orientations of descending convex cases as well as all corner case angles of 115 degrees or greater.
Metadata
Supervisors: | Richardson, Robert and Jackson, Andrew |
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Related URLs: | |
Keywords: | In-Pipe, Magnetic, Robot |
Awarding institution: | University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Systems and Design (iESD)(Leeds) |
Identification Number/EthosID: | uk.bl.ethos.811239 |
Depositing User: | Dr George H Jackson-Mills |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2020 16:21 |
Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2022 09:54 |
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