• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.223-231
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• 2021

In this paper describes the research and development of a pipe robot for pipe rehabilitation construction of old water pipes. After the water supply pipe construction, the pipe is leaking, damaged, and aging due to corrosion. Eventually, resistance to the flow of water in lower supply efficiency and contaminated water such as rusty water, finally in various consumer complaints. In order to solve this problem, rehabilitation construction robot technology is required to secure the construction quality of pipe rehabilitation construction and restore the function of the initial construction period. The developed pipe rehabilitation construction robot required a hydraulic actuator for high traction and was equipped with a small hydraulic supply device. In addition, we have developed a hydraulic cylinder and a link system that supports the pipe inner diameter to develop a single pipe robot corresponding to 500 to 800mm pipe diameter. The analysis and experimental verification of the driving performance and unit function of the developed pipe reconstruction robot are explained, and the result of the integrated performance test of the pipe reconstruction robot at the water supply pipe network site is explained.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.346-351
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• 2005

The outlet feeder pipe thinning in a PHWR (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) is caused by high pressure steam flow inside the pipe, which is a well known degradation mechanism called FAC (Flow Assisted Corrosion). In order to monitor the degradation, the thickness of the outlet bends closed to the exit of the pressure tube should be measured and analyzed at every official overhaul. This paper develops a mobile feeder pipe inspection robot that can minimize the irradiation dose of human workers by automating the measurement process. The robot can move by itself on the feeder pipe by using an inch worm mechanism, which is constructed by two gripper bodies that can fix the robot body on the pipe, one extendable and contractable actuator, and a rotation actuator connected the two gripper bodies to move forward and backward, and to rotate in the circumferential direction

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 2006

The outlet feeder pipe thinning in a PHWR (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) is caused by a high pressure steam flow inside the pipe, which is a well known degradation mechanism called a FAC (Flow Assisted Corrosion). In order to monitor the degradation, the thickness of the outlet bends close to the exit of the pressure tube should be measured and analyzed at every official overhaul. This paper describes a mobile feeder pipe inspection robot that can minimize the irradiation dose to human workers by automating the measurement process. The robot can move by itself on the feeder pipe by using an inch worm mechanism, which is constructed by two gripper bodies that can fix the robot body on to the pipe, one extendable and contractible actuator, and a rotation actuator connected to the two gripper bodies to move forward and backward, and to rotate in a circumferential direction.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 2017

In this paper, we introduce the pipe cleaning robot developed to clean the gas impurities of the iron manufacturing equipments. The pipe cleaning robot is composed of two driving modules and one cleaning module. 2-DOF joint units were developed for connections among the modules. To maximize the traction power of the driving parts, it became caterpillar type. The extension links have been developed to maintain the traction force in case the pipe inner diameters change. Three cleaning modules were developed for the effective cleaning in the pipe. The driving and cleaning performance tests of the pipe cleaning robot were proceeded in the field of the iron manufacturing equipments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.637-646
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• 2007

An UET (ultrasound excited thermography) has been used for several years for a remote non-destructive testing in the automotive and aircraft industry. It provides a thermo sonic image for a defect detection. A thermograhy is based On a propagation and a reflection of a thermal wave, which is launched from the surface into the inspected sample by an absorption of a modulated radiation. For an energy deposition to a sample, the UET uses an ultrasound excited vibration energy as an internal heat source. In this paper the applicability of the UET for a realtime defect detection is described. Measurements were performed on two kinds of pipes made from a copper and a CFRP material. In the interior of the CFRP pipe (70mm diameter), a groove (width - 6mm, depth - 2.7mm, and length - 70mm) was engraved by a milling. In the case of the copper pipe, a defect was made with a groove (width - 2mm, depth - 1mm, and length - 110 mm) by the same method. An ultrasonic vibration energy of a pulsed type is injected into the exterior side of the pipe. A hot spot, which is a small area around the defect was considerably heated up when compared to the other intact areas, was observed. A test On a damaged copper pipe produced a thermo sonic image, which was an excellent image contrast when compared to a CFRP pipe. Test on a CFRP pipe with a subsurface defect revealed a thermo sonic image at the groove position which was a relatively weak contrast.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2008

This paper describes a mobile inspection robot with an automatic pipe tracking system for a feeder pipe inspection in a PHWR. The robot is composed of two inch worm mechanisms. One is for a longitudinal motion along a pipe, and the other is for a rotational motion in a circumferential direction to access all of the outer surfaces of a pipe. The proposed mechanism has a stable gripping capability and is easy to install. An automatic pipe tracking system is proposed based on machine vision techniques to make the mobile robot follow an exact outer circumference of a curved feeder pipe as closely as possible, which is one of the requirements of a thickness measurement system for a feeder pipe. The proposed sensing technique is analyzed to attain its feasibility and to develop a calibration method for an accurate measurement. A mobile robot and control system are developed, and the automatic pipe tracking system is tested in a mockup of a feeder pipe.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.822-831
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• 2003

A computer-vision based pipe-inspection algorithm is developed. The algorithm uses the modified Hough transformation and a line-scanning approach to identify the edge line and the radius of the pipe image, from which the eccentricity and dimension of the pipe-end is calculated. Line and circle detection was performed using Laplace operator with input image, which are acquired from the front and side cameras. In order to minimize the memory usage and the processing time, a clustering method with the modified Hough transformation is introduced for line detection. The dimension of inner and outer radius of pipe is calculated by the proposed line-scanning method. The method scans several lines along the X and Y axes, calculating the eccentricity of inner and outer circle, by which pipes with wrong end-shape can be classified and removed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.1029-1034
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• 2006

In this paper, the tracking control of an automatic pipe cutting robot, called APCROM, with a magnetic binder is studied. Using magnetic force APCROM, a wheeled robot, binds itself to the pipe and executes unmanned cutting process. The gravity effect on the movement of APCROM varies as it rotates around the pipe laid in the gravitational field. In addition to the varying gravity effect other types of nonlinear disturbances including backlash in the driving system and the slip between the wheels of APCROM and the pipe also cause degradation in the cutting process. To maintain a constant velocity and consistent cutting performance, the authors adopt a repetitive learning controller (MRLC), which learns the required effort to cancel the tracking errors. An angular-position estimation method based on the MEMS-type accelerometer is also used in conjunction with MRLC to compensate the tracking error caused by slip at the wheels. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2010

This paper proposes the technique of estimating the pipe thickness using the measured group velocity. To measure the group velocity from the accelerometer data in the frequency domain, Wigner-Ville distribution is utilized, which interprets the waveform of the shock wave. Using this measured group velocity, this paper proposes the technique to estimate the thickness of pipes with the impact on the pipe. The group velocity is estimated by the modeling correlation between the group velocity and the thickness of the pipe based on the propagation velocities. The correlation model between thickness and group velocity has been proved through the real experiments. The measured group velocity in the frequency-domain is the maximum at the center frequency of the bending waves in the modeling of the group velocity. In addition to these, a smoothing technique for analyzing lamb wave Wigner-Ville distribution has been introduced to improve the reliability of the data acquisition.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.251-261
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• 2010

In this paper, we introduce an internal pipeline exploration of an in-pipe robot, based on the landmark recognition system. The fittings of pipelines such as elbows and branches are used as the landmarks. The robot recognizes the landmarks with a vision system by using the shadows of the elements, which are generated by the specially designed illuminator on the robot. By using a simple image-processing, the robot can easily detect and distinguish these landmarks while recognizing the direction of the pipeline path. Simultaneously, all information for exploration is continuously recorded and used to reconstruct the map of the pipelines. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by real experiments using the in-pipe robot MRINSPECT V for moving inside of the miniature urban 8-inch gas pipeline structure.