下水管補修作業における取付管口削孔ロボットの開発

抄録

This paper discusses the development of a robot for sewer pipe repair operations. In recent years, the number of aging sewer pipes has been rapidly increasing, while the workforce engaged in sewer pipe maintenance has been steadily declining. As a result, improving the efficiency of sewer pipe repair operations has become an urgent issue. One common repair method is the ”Alpha Liner Method,” which involves forming a new pipe inside the old sewer pipe using light-curing resin. During this process, lateral connection openings are sealed off and must be re-opened by drilling. Currently, the drilling machine is manually transported to the drilling site, which is labor-intensive and inefficient, placing a significant burden on workers. In this study, we developed a robot capable of drilling lateral connection openings without human effort by utilizing actuators. The robot employs mecanum wheels for omnidirectional movement, allowing it to roll and rotate inside the pipe and drill openings positioned at various angles. The performance of the robot ’s mobility was evaluated.