Go to JKU Homepage
Institute of Measurement Technology
What's that?

Institutes, schools, other departments, and programs create their own web content and menus.

To help you better navigate the site, see here where you are at the moment.

Deutsch, Sprache wechseln
Go to JKU Homepage

Master Theses.

Autonomous, amphibious inspection robot

Gabriel Ecker

For the detection and localisation of deposits in drainage pipes an inspection robot, as well as a measurement system were developed.

The extreme environmental conditions e. g. humidity and water currents, as well as lack of space to operate and various kind of obstacles to be encountered require special solutions in all involved disciplines. So the design is aiming for a most compact and potentially self-disassembling solution necessary for cases of stuck robots.

The locomotion is realised by four 90° displaced track drives, pressed against the pipe wall by springs. A threaded spindle mechanism allows adjustments to the tube's inner diameter and variegating the spring forces. Through eddy current sensors, included into the spring mechanics, the spring deflection can be measured and as a consequence the thickness of potential sediments can be estimated. For a coarse localisation the turns of the drive motors are recorded and saved with the other measurement data.

Keywords: in-pipe robot, drainage inspection, tunnel maintenance

January 13th, 2020

Figure 1: inspection robot prototype

The thesis will be inaccessible for a 5-year period beginning January 23, 2020.

Go to JKU Homepage

Johannes Kepler University Linz

Altenberger Straße 69

4040 Linz, Austria

Telephone +43 732 2468 0
Fax +43 732 2468 4929
Contact