Abstract
The cylindrical object such as a water pipe or an oil pipeline are widely used in the infrastructure. Those pipes should be inspected periodically by human or a robot. However, since there is no edge or vertex in the pipe, it is very difficult for the robot to navigate along the pipe. In this paper in order to guide the robot along the axis of the pipe, an algorithm which find the axis using the measured range data from the robot to the pipe wall is developed The algorithm is verified using both the simulated range data and the measured one.