Internal in-service inspection of the floor and walls of oil, petroleum, and chemical storage tanks with a mobile robot

Abstract

The RobTank mobile robot can enter oil and chemical storage tanks through 300 mm or more diameter openings in the roof. It performs in-service inspection of the floor and walls while\nsubmerged in liquid thereby saving the cost of emptying, cleaning, and manually inspecting the tank. A navigation system keeps track of position and orientation within the tank. An\narray of ultrasonic wheel probes and two bulk-wave rotating probes look for corrosion thinning on the floor and walls up to half a metre ahead and under inaccessible floor areas.\nObstacles such as drain sumps, heating coils, etc. are detected and avoided.