Investigation of odometry method of pipe line shape by peristaltic crawling robot combined with inner sensor

Abstract

In recent years, road collapse accidents due to leakage of aging sewage pipes have become a major social problem. To prevent accidents, the inside of the sewage pipe must be inspected. However, it is difficult to inspect long-distance pipes with diameters of 100 mm or less and curved pipes. Therefore, in this research, we develop an inspection system that uses earthworm movement which can drive steadily over long distances even in narrow spaces. This research involves traveling experiments on straight horizontal pipes, straight vertical pipes, and 90° pipes, and the usefulness of the proposed approach is confirmed. In this report, we present the device to estimate the shape of sewer pipelines and confirm its usefulness by experiment.