AsianScientist (Nov. 2, 2015) – In a study published in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, researchers describe a robot that can move within thin pipes.
Endoscopes are often used for examining deep areas of small-diameter pipes during regular maintainence. However, such inspection is difficult to achieve in winding pipes of small diameter. Therefore, there is demand for in-pipe mobile robots that can move inside thin pipes.
Now, Toshio Takayama and colleagues at Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a novel device named the twisted bundled tube locomotive device. The device consists of three elastic silicone rubber tubes that are twisted around a non-expandable thread and bonded. When these tubes are sequentially pressurized, the device exhibits helical rotation, and it moves along the axis of the pipe.
The 6 mm diameter prototype can move through several pipe diameters in the range 9 to 25 mm. The highest velocity is 45 mm/s in a pipe with a diameter of 20 mm. The prototype is highly flexible and easily passes through pipe elbows without special control. Moreover, the researchers confirmed that if the winding pitch varies, the outer diameter of the helix also changes.
The maximum diameter of the pipe through which the device can progress depends on the outer diameter of the helix. In future studies, the researchers plan to develop a a physical model to predict the outer diameter of the helix.
The article can be found at: Takayama et al. (2015) A Twisted Bundled Tube Locomotive Device Proposed for In-Pipe Mobile Robot.
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Source: Tokyo Institute of Technology.
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