Two-point contact type in-pipe inspection robot applicable to T-shaped branch pipeline

Abstract

In-pipe robots are required to support their body stably and move in any direction inside T-shaped branch pipeline. However, when the body was supported by more than three points, it could not balance itself at the T-shaped branch point of the pipe. Therefore, the authors, proposed a two wheeled mobile mechanism that could always keep its balance and move in any direction inside the pipe by using two-point contact support. Kinematics of the proposed mechanism was analyzed and state transition of required operation was successfully achieved in several experiments. From the above results, we conformed that the proposed mechanism was applicable to T-shaped branch pipeline.