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Autonomous Inspection Robot for Drainage Systems
Wolfgang Hofer
In tunnels which are designed for water pressure relief, scaling of calcite occurs in the drainage pipes. It is important to know the current state and the thickness of these deposits, to be able to remove them efficiently.
To solve this problem, the possibility of a mobile measurement is investigated. In practice this means a robot, which moves autonomously through the pipes and measures the local deposits. This however is made difficult by the tough environment and the very high reliability requirements.
Fig. 1: Inspection Robot Prototypes
Four prototypes with different locomotion concepts are designed, built and tested. Drive units consisting of integrated motor and cycloidal drive were specially designed for this application.
In a second step, the most promising model was further improved. A device was added, which can sweep the inner wall of the pipes and log the occurring profile.
Keywords: tunnel, drainage, pipe, cycloidal, gearbox, scaling, calcite
November 16, 2021
