A Robotic Tunnel Drainage Inspection Rover

Abstract

Drainage pipes in tunnels are very complicated to service but still need rather frequent inspections in order to detect the initiation of deposited scales stemming from carbonate that tends to precipitate when the pH-value of the mountain water rises with the release of gaseous carbon dioxide CO2 due to a decreasing water pressure. The drainages enable to design tunnels without resistance to ground water pressure. We present the development of a robot able to autonomously navigate through tunnel drainage pipe systems inspecting for these carbonate scale deposits, and can demonstrate that the currently available test platform is able to traverse autonomously, in between two recharging stops in manholes, a few hundred meters of tunnel pipes thereby acquiring on a localized basis various environmental parameters like pH-value, the water's conductivity, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration in addition to documenting the pipes’ condition with respect to scaling via a video clip that is recorded along with an estimated position in the pipe.