Explorer: Untethered Real-Time Gas Main Assessment Robot

System
Hagen Schempf George Vradis
Carnegie Mellon University Polytechnic University
Robotics Institute Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
5000 Forbes Ave. Six MetroTech Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Brooklyn, NY 11201
[email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT: With funding from the NorthEast Gas Association (NGA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)
and NASA, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has developed Explorer, a long range, un-tethered, modular
inspection robot for the visual inspection of 6” and 8” natural gas distribution system pipelines. The robot can be
launched into the pipeline under live conditions utilizing a commercial no-blow system via a specially designed
attachment, and can negotiate diameter changes, 45-deg and 90-deg bends and tees, as well as inclined and
vertical pieces of the piping network. The modular design of the system allows it to be expanded in the near
future to include additional inspection and/or repair tools. The range of the robot is an order of magnitude higher
than present state-of-the-art inspection systems and is expected to fundamentally alter the way gas utilities
maintain and manage their systems. A prototype system has been built, and is undergoing extensive laboratory
system testing prior to scheduled field demonstrations, expected for the summer and fall of 2003. This paper will
describe the overall engineering design and functionality of the design, as well as present preliminary laboratory
testing demonstration (a video of the system in operation will be shown at the conference).

KEYWORDS: gas pipeline, robot, inspection, wireless, untethered, segmented, modular, live operation.

1. BACKGROUND

US gas companies spend over $300 million

annually detecting and repairing gas leaks in the
urban and suburban distribution network settings.
The current approach is one of above-ground leak
detection and pinpointing, followed by excavation,
repair and restoration. The major cost incurred is
typically that of digging and restoring the
excavation site. A tool capable of providing real-
time and long-term inspection capabilities that
would allow for rapid and pre-planned inspections
and repairs wherever needed, would allow utilities
to better manage and allocate their operating and
repair budgets, potentially reducing costly
emergency repairs.

2. STATE OF THE ART Figure 1 : Prior art in in-pipe inspection systems

In the area of in-pipe inspection systems, there are Three of the more notable exceptions are the
many examples of prior-art robotic systems for autonomous Kurt I system from GMD (Germany)
use in underground piping (transmission-pipeline used for sewer monitoring (not commercial nor
pigs excluded). Most of them however are hardened), the (albeit tethered) cast-iron pipe
focussed on water- and sewer-lines, and meant for joint-sealing robot (CISBOT; developed by
inspection, repair and rehabilitation (Pearpoint, Enbridge & Consolidated Edison of NY), which is
Beaver, KA-TE, etc.). As such, they are mostly deployed through a bolt-on fitting and injects
tethered, utilizing cameras and specialized tooling, anaerobic sealant into the leaking jute-stuffed
etc. (see Figure 1). joint, and GRISLEE (developed by the Gas
Technology Institute, CMU & Maurer

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Technology, Inc.), a coiled-tubing tether deployed
inspection, marking and in-situ spot-repair system.
These systems are shown in Figure 2:

Figure 3 : Explorer - Pipe Inspection System

The architecture of the robot is simple and

symmetric. A 7-element articulated body-design
houses a mirrorimage arrangement of locomotion,
battery-, support and computing electronics in
purged and pressurized housings (see Figure 4).
Each module is connected to the next through an
articulated joint; the joints connecting the
locomotor-module(s) to the rest of the ‘train’, are
pitch-roll joints, while the remaining (four) joints
are only pitch-joints. This allows the
Figure 2 : Tethered gasmain (CISBOT - right; locomotormodules to articulate in any direction,
GRISLEE - bottom) and untethered autonomous with subsequent rotation-plane alignment of the
(Kurt I) robots developed to date by industry and remaining joints to enact a turn in any plane. The
universities system is capable of multi-mile travel inside pipes
using custom on-board battery-packs, which can
3. SYSTEM OVERVIEW use any desired chemistry depending on desired
range and cost.
In order to explore this possibility, NYSEARCH,
the reesearch committe of the NGA, DoE (current)
and NASA (past), are funding a program at
Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Robotics
Institute (RI) to develop an advanced remote and
robotic inspection system, capable of multi-mile
long-duration travel inside live gas mains for in-
situ assessment. Under this program, CMU has
developed Explorer, a real-time remotely
controllable, modular visual inspection robot
system for the in-situ inspection and imaging of
live 6- and 8-inch diameter distribution gas-mains Figure 4 : Overall modular layout of Explorer
(see Figure 3 for an image of the prototype in a
test network setting). Explorer is capable of The locomotor-module contains the forward-
locomoting through straight pipe segments and looking mini fish-eye camera, -lens and -lighting
sharp bends, elbows, Ys and Ts, using a elements, as well as dual drive actuators. These
combination of its on-board driving-arms and actuators allow for the deployment/retraction of a
steering-joints. The system is sealed and purged set of three ‘arms’, at the end of which are a set of
(and thus can safely operate in natural gas custom-molded wheels used for pulling/pushing
environments) and capable of negotiating wet and the train through the pipe; sustained speeds of up
partially-filled (water, mud, etc.) pipes. to 4 in/sec. are achievable (see Figure 5).

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Figure 5 : Locomotor Module Figure 7 : Support Module Prototype Hardware
(covers and end-modules removed)
The battery-module(s) contain custom battery
packs to allow for a full 10-hour mission with all The computer-module contains the custom-
systems consuming maximum power. This packaged 32-bit low-power (< 1 Watt) processor
module is the only one that is pressure-sealed due and support hardware for control and
to battery-chemistry concerns at elevated methane communications, as well as power-conversion and
pressures (see Figure 6). -conditioning (see Figure 8).

Figure 6 : Battery-Module internals

The support modules also have extendable ‘arms’,

with the principle behind self-centering being Figure 8 : CPU & Housing for Electronics
identical to that of the drive-module, further Module
easing turning and launching. The wheels at the
end of the arms are passive and have embedded Articulation of all modules occurs through an
magnets with hall-effect encoding, allowing the innovative roll-pitch joint arrangement. On the
system to determine position via dead-reckoning inside edge of each of the drive modules are two
,note that there are 3 wheels per support-module roll joints that allow the whole train to rotate about
and 2 support modules, allowing for averaging out its longitudinal axis. Each dually-interconnected
errors over distance - see Figure 7 for detail: module has an active pitch-joint, enabling
successive joints to be rotated to allow the joints
to rotate in a plane controlled by the orientation
set by the roll-actuators; this is the approach used
to make turns in pipes, given that cork-screwing
for non-gravity locomotors is a given fact of free-
moving braced locomotors in pipes (Figure 9
shows the combined roll/pitch joint prototype
hardware).

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 displaying these remotely at the operator console
(see Figure 11).

Figure 9 : Roll-/Pitch-joint hardware

Figure 11 :Fisheye and dewarping imagery user
The overall electronics architecture, shown in interface
Figure 10, depicts the on-board scheme of using a
central high-MIPS low-power CPU to
communicate with a set of I2C-connected The imaging hardware setup is based on a digital
microprocessors to achieve all control, data- CMOS imager (640 x 480), coupled with a
gathering and I/O functions over a customized miniature fisheye lens illuminated by a set of 36
wireless ethernet backbone implementation. A PWM white near & far focussed LEDs, delivering
custom-developed 32-bit lowpower central frame-rate imagery over an LVDS interface to the
processor controls all the locomotion and steering main CPU, allowing it to be broadcast wirelessly -
functions based on real-time operator control the prototype setup is shown in Figure 12:
commands. All on-board functions are served
through a network of distributed 8-bit
microprocessors communicating over an internal
I2C-bus. Real-time external communications is
through a wireless 802.11b implementation of
UDP, using the pipe as a waveguide
for long-range communications.

Figure 12 : Explorer Fisheye Imager setup

4. DEPLOYMENT

The system is launched through a live installed

vertical launch-chamber (see Figure 15), after a
hole has been dug in a ‘low-cost’ location selected
Figure 10 : Explorer overall electronics by the utility, where custom antennaes are used to
architecture link the operator console to the robot. An operator
controls the robot using a simple forward/reverse
The system carries with it fish-eye cameras on joystick interface,
either end, capable of imaging, dewarping and
mosaiquing pipe-internal imagery at frame-rates
with a combination of edge-finding and laplace-
operations performed on image-slivers), and

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 Figure 13 : View of the test pipe-network setup at CMU (inside yellow box)

while the on-board computers generate all the 5. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS

individual joint-steer and driving commands (see
Figure 14). Turns are possible by positioning the The project team is currently experimenting with
robot at the proper place in the pipe, identifying all the different types of ‘obstacles’ (bends, Ts,
the direction of the turn on the touchscreen Ys, elbows, verticals, etc.) to be encountered in
monitor, and engaging an automated scripted the field, in a separate laboratory pipe mock-up
routine to coordinate the turning and driving setting shown in Figure 15:
motions to allow for a turn through a nonstraight
section of pipe.

Figure 15 : Indoor Pipe Mock-up Test-loop setting

The access-method being used revolves around a

vertical launch, using commercially-available
fittings and valving, with a custom-developed
pressurized and actuated launch-chamber. This
method minimizes excavation costs and makes
maximum use of existing OEM products the gas
utilities are comfortable with in every day use.
The launch-chamber and the robot shown in mid-
launch (pipe removed for clarity), are
Figure 14 : View of the launching and control shown in Figure 16:
setup

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 obstacles and out-of and into the launch chamber.
Said work is in progress and is expected to be
completed by the late fall of 2003, including
endurance testing in the outdoor pipenetwork
specifically built for the purposes of this effort at
CMU (Figure 13). Live gas main field-trials are
scheduled for the 2003 pre-winter season in New
York State. Patents are pending, with licensing
completed and commercialization efforts well
underway.

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to acknowledge the support of NASA

(Contract # NCC5-223), NYSEARCH/NGA
(Contract # M2000-004) and DoE (prime-contract
with NYSEARCH/NGA) for the development of
the Explorer system at CMU.

9. REFERENCES

[1] Ives, G., Jr., “Pipe Ruptures”, PipeLine & Gas

Industry Journal, Vol. 83, No.9, Houston, TX
[2] Staff Report, “New Optical methane detector
improves gas leak surveys”, PipeLine & Gas
Figure 16 : Launch-chamber and pipe setup Industry Journal, September 2000
[3] Porter, C., Pittard, G., “Magnetic Flux Leakage
Results to date have shown that the system can Technology for Inspecting ‘Live’ Gas-Distribution
drive at 4 inches/sec. as required, with a typical Mains”, GTI Technical Report # GRI-99/
obstaclehandling time of 10 to 15 minutes per 0199, Oct. 1999, Chicago, IL
occurrence. Launching has been timed at 45 [4] Schempf, et al., “Robotic Repair System for
minutes, with vertical pipe-climbing and retrieval Live
still having to be tested. Distribution Gasmains”, Field and Service
Robotics Conference., FSR 2001, June 11 - 13,
6. CONCLUSIONS Helsinki, Finland.
[5] Guidance Manual for Operators of Small
The development of a segmented and modular Natural
robottrain to navigate almost all types of pipe- Gas Systems, US Department of Transportation,
internal geometries has been shown to be feasible. Research and Special Programs
Challenges remain in the areas of power-density Administration, August 1997.
and communications bandwidth to maximize the [6] Schempf, et al., “GRISLEE: Gasmain Repair
profitability of such a system in commercial &
applications. As part of commercialization it will Inspection System for Live Entry Environments“,
be critical to tailor the early prototype(s) CLAWAR'01 Special Issue of the International
development to a subset of inspection tasks so as Journal of Robotics Research, March-April,
to ensure successful deployment and overcome 2003, Vol. 22, Nos 3 and 4.
the typical early-adopter reluctance to field
unknown and limited track-record systems.

7. FUTURE PLANS

Challenges remain in the area of computer-

executed script development, as well as simplified
user interface development to allow operators to
readily and easily control the robot around

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