bottle-brush robot goes where \'pigs\' can\'t reach

Kurt kleiner says a robot with bristles like a bottle brush can use current technology to check water, sewer and gas pipelines that cannot be reached.
So far, the robot that has been hairy has inspected the sewage and gas pipelines and explored the pipelines of the nuclear power plant, otherwise they cannot be inspected without dismantling, researchers who invented robots said.
Whether it\'s oil, natural gas or sewage, most pipes can be inspected with a dedicated robot called a \"pig.
Once inserted into the pipe, the pig is driven by the pressure that the gas or liquid accumulates behind the pipe.
When it moves along it, the pipe can be photographed or magnetic tested from the inside.
But some pipes are partially blocked, damaged, or too narrow or distorted for this method.
This pipe is described as \"not a pig \".
In their paper, Wang Zhe Long and Hong Gu of Dalian University of Technology in China described a robot that overcame these problems, which was by Ernest Appleton of Durham University in the UK.
The robot moves under its own strength and colon;
It is cylindrical, covered with a thick layer of steel bristles, making it look like a bottle brush.
Like a bottle brush, the bristles bend back to fit any space.
The advantage is that the bristles can adapt to changes in the shape of the pipe, including narrow sections or partially blocked pipes, and provide a way to push the robot forward.
The body design can be divided into two or three parts, each pair has a cylinder connection.
When the cylinder tries to separate the body parts, the rear block cannot move due to the resistance from the backward direction
Face the bristles so the other body pushes forward.
When the cylinder is pulled together, the front brush is inserted and the rear brush is pulled forward.
The robot tracks the tether, provides air pressure for its cylinders, and provides power and data connections for the instruments on board.
In the trial, the pig stle robot with a diameter of 255mm checked 25-
An average of 7 m long pigsty tube.
43 metres a minute
In another set of tests, it successfully checked 19 out of 20 sewers that could not have been checked, and only one fully blocked pipe stopped checking.
Researchers say other versions of the bristle robot have successfully checked the pipelines of natural gas pipelines and nuclear reactors.
Al Crouch, a retired engineer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said most of the existing pipes can accommodate traditional pigs and are designed to stay like this.
But not all possibilities are predictable.
\"I think the pig stle drive is a good way to deal with the conditions in which the pipeline cannot be transported,\" he told New Scientist . \".
He said: \"It can provide a very strong propulsion force enough to pull the tether line if necessary, and it can tolerate drastic changes in the crossing of the pipe
Sections, including broken pipes, \"Journal reference and colon;
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (DOI: 10. 1109/TMECH. 2008. 924133)
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