Research on a novel inner and outer spiral micro in-pipe robot

摘要

This study proposes a novel inner and outer spiral micro in-pipe robot. The inner and outer spiral robot structure is designed. The fluid flow field in the turbulent pipe is solved through computational fluid dynamics method, and the accuracy of the adopted numerical method is verified. The influences of environmental (liquid density, liquid viscosity, pipe diameter, and eccentricity) and operating (inner spiral rotational speed, outer spiral rotational speed, and robotic running speed) parameters on the robot performance are numerically analyzed. Inner and outer spiral driving devices are designed and fabricated according to the working principle of the inner and outer spiral robot. In addition, the feasibility of the proposed robot is verified by performing an experiment in a pipe filled with 201 methyl silicone oil.