• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.219-219
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• 2000

A Plate type pipe is used for heat exchange in radiator of a vehicle. The pipe has several rooms through which water flows and heat is dissipated into outside . In the case that there are small holes, cracks or some scratches on the plate, the radiators lost their functions due to Leakage. This may result in overheating of engine in a car. Thus, we need to perform the entire inspection of the plate type pipe in advance before assembling the radiator. In manufacturing process of the plate type pipe, the productive speed is very high and that may be performed continuously. So, there is no room to perform the outlook inspection by typical image processing techniques. This paper proposes a new method to inspect the outlook surface of the plate type pipe automatically with high speed. Especially, the sequential processing technique of an algorithm which detects defects on the surfaces of the plate type pipe is proposed for line scan camera which captures line image. To evaluate the inspection performance, a series of experiments is performed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1041-1063
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• 2014

This work introduces a two-module robotic pipe inspection system with ultrasonic NDE device to evaluate the integrity of pipe structures. The proposed robotic platform has high mobility. The two module mobile robot platform overcomes pipe obstacle structures such as elbow, or T-branch joints by cooperative maneuvers. Also, it can climb up the straight pipeline at a fast speed due to the wheel driven mechanism. For inspection of pipe structure, SH-waves generated by EMAT are applied with additional signal processing methods. A wavelet transform is implemented to extract a meaningful and specific signal from the superposed SH-wave signals. Intensity ratio which is normalized the defect signals intensity by the maximum intensity of directly transmitted signals in the wavelet transforms spectrum is applied to evaluate defects quantitatively. It is experimentally verified that the robotic ultrasonic inspection system with EMAT is capable of non-destructive inspection and evaluation of defects in pipe structure successfully by applying signal processing method based on wavelet transform.

• 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

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.88.3-88
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• 2001

In this paper, an on-line multi-sensor visual inspection technique for seamless steel pipe´s straightness is developed. The basic principle of the visual measuring method is detailed. The modeling of visual sensor, measurement system and data processing are presented. In order to test the accuracy of the multi-sensor visual inspection, an experiment inspecting the straightness of a 1500mm long seamless steel pipe is made. The experiment results show that the visual inspection technique can achieve on-line measurement and offers high precision and stability.

• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.251-254
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• 2003

For improving the flow capacity of pipeline system the hydraulic inspection method was developed conducting on-site with survey of pipeline facility such as diversion work, air vent, etc. and pipe network analysis. The pipe network analysis method determine pipe diameter with trial and error. The validity of the hydraulic inspection method proved adapting on S-district pipeline system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.633-641
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• 2008

Recently, the necessity for diagnosis and management of pipes has emerged as the issue due to contamination of water supply generated by corrosion of pipes. Although inspection has been performed with industrial endoscopes, the method has limits for full diagnosis of pipes due to the lack of working range. As a solution for this problem, many locomotive mechanisms for a micro robot with endoscope functions were proposed. In this paper, we analyze the locomotive mechanism of crawling robot proposed as locomotive device for pipe inspection. Based on a mechanical modeling of motor and micro robot inside small pipe, the theoretical formula for velocity is obtained. This derived theoretical formula is demonstrated the feasibility through the comparison with experimental result. Also, we could find the most important element influencing the moving velocity of micro robot when the robot operates in small pipe. Consequently, it is expected that this study can supply useful information to design of crawling robot to move in small pipe.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.1239-1240
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• 2010