Recent Trends of the In-Pipe Inspection Robotic System from Academia and Industry Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the recent designs of the in-pipe inspection robotic system from the researchers in the academia and industrial fields. The scope of the paper will focus on the designs, locomotion of the systems and the actuator that will actuate or provide force to drive the in-pipe robot forward. The study covers the trends of the research from recent years to date. It is observable that most of the researches conducted by academic researchers focused on the designs and locomotion of the robots which commonly used wheel drive, screw drive and modular locomotion method. The screw drive in-pipe robotic system has a set of wheels located at certain distance apart from the centre of the body with a certain angle so that the system rotates like a screw when it is actuated. On the contrary, the in-pipe robotic system from the industry like oil and gas industry uses wheel type robot combined with other parts like disc, cups, scraper and attached with the sensory system to conduct the inspection.