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About

Peter Hansen is a leading researcher in robotic perception and visual odometry, with a primary focus on the inspection and mapping of critical infrastructure, particularly natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipe networks. His major contributions lie in developing vision-based systems for pipe-crawling robots, enabling autonomous localization and mapping in these challenging, confined environments. Hansen pioneered the use of monocular and fisheye cameras for visual odometry in pipes, addressing the unique constraints of low-light, texture-poor, and geometrically complex networks. His most influential work, "Visual mapping for natural gas pipe inspection" (2014, 68 citations), validated the feasibility of using robot-mounted cameras to replace or augment traditional inspection techniques like magnetic flux leakage and ultrasound. He further advanced the field by modeling and compensating for systematic bias in visual odometry error growth, significantly improving long-term navigation accuracy. With over 150 total citations, Hansen’s research has directly contributed to safer, more efficient inspection of industrial pipe systems, reducing reliance on remote human operators and enabling more reliable automated integrity assessments.