Aalborg Universitet

Smart-Spider
Autonomous self-driven in-line robot for versatile pipeline inspection
Qu, Ying; Durdevic, Petar; Yang, Zhenyu

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IFAC-PapersOnLine

DOI (link to publication from Publisher):

10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.06.385

Publication date:
2018

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Citation for published version (APA):

Qu, Y., Durdevic, P., & Yang, Z. (2018). Smart-Spider: Autonomous self-driven in-line robot for versatile pipeline
inspection. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(8), 251-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.06.385

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IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256

Smart-Spider: Autonomous Self-driven

In-line Robot for Versatile Pipeline
Inspection ⋆
Ying Qu ∗ Petar Durdevic ∗ Zhenyu Yang ∗
∗
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Esbjerg
Campus, Niels Bohrs Vej 8, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark (e-mail:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]).

Abstract: This paper presents the design and development of a conceptual prototype of an
autonomous self-driven inline inspection robot, called Smart-Spider. The primary objective is to
use this type of robot for offshore oil and gas pipeline inspection, especially for those pipelines
where the conventional intelligent pigging systems could not or be difficult to be deployed. The
Smart-Spider, which is real-time controlled by its own on-board MCU core and power supplied
by a hugged-up battery, is expected to execute pipeline inspection in an autonomous manner.
A flexible mechanism structure is applied to realize the spider’s flexibility to adapt to different
diameters of pipelines as well as to handle some irregular situations, such as to pass through
an obstacled areas or to maneuver at a corner or junction. This adaption is automatically
controlled by the MCU controller based on pressure sensors’ feedback. The equipped devices,
such as the selected motors and battery package, as well as the human-and-machine interface
are also discussed in detail. Some preliminary laboratory testing results illustrated the feasibility
and cost-effective of this design and development in a very promising manner.
© 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pipeline inspection, inline robot, autonomous control, flexible legs, HMI interface.

1. INTRODUCTION track and the central body, which structure makes the
caterpillar track parts can contract in a small scale to
Pipelines, used for offshore gas, oil and water transporta- adapt to bended pipelines. Because of the independent
tion, tend to be corroded after some time. Many pipelines speed control of the four caterpillars, it has efficient steer-
are located in some harsh marine environment, such as on ing capability to go through the pipelines with differ-
or under the seabed, or even deep underground, and the ge- ent branches. However, this robot can only be used for
ometries and configurations of the pipeline systems can be pipelines with a fixed diameter, that is 150 mm.
very complicated. The condition inspection and integrity MRINSPECT V, a fixed diameter inline robot for 8-inch
check of these pipelines can be very challenging, and even inner diameter pipelines is developed and presented in Se
impossible by deploying the conventional inspection tools, (2008). This inline robot can realize part of autonomous
such as the intelligent pig systems, even though often the navigation, and the power for the electronic system and
economic cost can also be tremendous, see Christian (2016) the motors is supported by the on board batteries. Be-
and Iszmir (2012). sides that, a differential driving structure is adopted on
Many existing commercial inline robots need to be the mechanism design, which makes the motion of the
equipped with tethers/cables for data transmission and proposed robot adapt to different pipeline shapes. More-
power supply. Thereby, the inspection geometries is quite over, the application of clutches is also highlight, which
limited by these tethers/cables. See Young (2012). A is able to select the suitable driving method based on
crawler-type pipeline inspection robot is designed to in- different conditions for saving energy. The mobility and the
spect 80-100 mm diameter indoor pipelines in that paper. efficiency performance of the robot are validated through
The four-bar mechanisms is introduced to assure that the experiments. However, although some wheels are installed
flexible diameter of the robot can expand to firmly grip on the two battery packages, there are no actuators on
the pipeline inner surface. However, this robot still needs them. Thus, the motion of the two battery carriages cannot
cables for transmitting the commands and the inspection be controlled directly by the controller, but only depend on
data between the remote workstation and the robot. the push and pull from the other two actuator carriages.
Furthermore, the proposed robot lacks the flexibility of
An autonomous mobile robot for pipeline exploration, adapting to different pipeline diameters.
called FAMPER, is described in Jong (2010). Four inde-
pendent suspensions are applied to link each caterpillar An innovative Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) for in-
dustrial pipelines with small diameters is designed and
⋆ The authors would like to the support from Danish Hydrocarbon developed in Firas (2015), the functions of which are to
Research and Technology Centre(DHRTC) through DHRTC Radical clean and inspect pipelines. The diameter of the proposed
Project Programme

2405-8963 © 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.06.385
252 Ying Qu et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256

PIG can adjusted to adapt pipelines with 6” to 14” inner The main mechanism structure is represented in Fig. 2,
diameters, by adapting its shirts. Ultra Sonic sensors and which is composed of two parts: the tube body and the
Arduino software are applied to inspect the diameter of three flexible clutch mechanisms. Both of these two parts
the pipeline. Several arms are configured on the proposed are processed by aluminium alloy. Inside the tube body is
robot to maintain the moving speed and the position as the rack for the electronic system and the three flexible
expected. The feasibility of the inline motion is validated clutch sets. The electronic system, consisting of a battery
using the Solidworks motion simulation tools. However, and two layers of electronic PCBs and components, is
this robot model is only at the simulation stage, therefore, fixed on the tube inside. On the exterior surface of the
no physical model or experiments has been reported. tube body, the three sets of flexible clutch mechanisms
are integrated with 120 degrees interval angle, which can
Without concerning to use any tethers or cables, a con- make the Smart-Spider suit well for pipelines with round
ceptual prototype inline robot, called Smart-Spider, is cross section. Besides, two transparent acrylic domes are
designed and developed in this work. A flexible mechanical assembled at the front and the rear sides of the tube body
structure is designed in order to handle versatile pipe respectively.
diameters, and the control cores and electronic system as
well as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) are also designed
accordingly.
In this paper, the flexible mechanism structure is described
in detail in Section 2. Section 3 describes the automatic
control mechanism implemented in the MCU to real-time
adjust the legs to different conditions based on the pres-
sure variation on the wheels. The implementation of the
proposed pipeline inspection robot platform, including the
controller, some devices’ specifications and the preliminary
experimental results, are described in Section 4 and the
conclusion are followed in Section 5.
Fig. 2. The mechanism structure of the Smart-Spider
2. ARCHITECTURE OF THE SMART-SPIDER
The length of the Smart-Spider is 426 mm and the exterior
2.1 Whole Smart-Spider System diameter is 300 mm. Based on the flexible mechanism,
the exterior diameter of the Smart-Spider can adjust
from 450 mm to 575mm, which means the variation of
The Smart-Spider system, as shown in Fig. 1, is composed
the flexible mechanisms can reach 78%. The diameter
of the robot device and the workstation. The Smar-Spider
transmission range of the Smart-Spider is represented in
can move inline for performing some tasks automatically,
Fig. 3. Therefore, the Smart-Spider can be applied for the
without any tethers or cables connecting to the worksta-
inspection tasks in the pipelines with the diameter in this
tion. Regarding to the spider itself, the mechanism struc-
range.
ture consists two parts: the main body and the flexible
mechanism. The electronic system manages motion con-
trol, leg automatic adaption, data collection and storage
etc. On the remote workstation side, the graphical user in-
terface (GUI) are used for mainly two purposes: (1)sending
start and end commands at the beginning and the end
of one automatic inspection experiment; (2)monitoring
the (pseudo-) real-time information in the experimental
stage, via wireless communication between the robot and
workstation.
Fig. 3. The diameter transmission range of the Smart-
Spider can be from 450 mm to 575 mm

2.2 Flexible mechanism

Three sets of flexible wheel mechanisms are integrated in

the Smart-Spider, and all their structures are completely
same. Each of these flexible wheel mechanisms consists
of three units: the driving mechanism, the linkage clutch
mechanism and the wheel units, shown as in Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5, respectively. In order to be more compact and more
flexible, a screw rod is applied to replace the traditional
spring axe, which was used in Young (2010) and Young
(2012), and an improved 4-bar structure is designed for
the linkage clutch mechanism, compared with the design
Fig. 1. The whole system of the inline inspection robot - in Fa (2015). Every wheel unit is composed of two sets
the Smart-Spider of wheels and every wheel set consists two wheels. Each
 Ying Qu et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256 253

wheel set is driven by a DC motor, which is equipped with where FP is the pressure on the P point, Ff is the friction
a worm gear box, as shown in Fig. 5. between the wheels and the pipeline inner surface and µ
is the friction coefficient.
The driving mechanism is responsible for actuating the
4-bar linkage clutch mechanisms to extend or contract, The torque on point S relating to point E is:
followed the wheel units to adjust to different pipeline TF = F1 · l′ (3)
diameters. The screw rod is driven by a stepper motor to
revolve clockwise or anticlockwise. Therefore, the U-shape Therefore, F1 can figure out. Then through dividing F1 ,
slider and the connector slider crossing on the screw rod the force on the slider bar F2 is:
can move forward and backward respectively. Then, the
angle in the 4-bar linkage clutch transforms according to F2 = F1 · cos(α − 90◦ ) (4)
the position of the sliders, which determines the exterior
diameter of the Smart-Spider. Because α = 180◦ − 2θ, F2 can be represented as:
F2 = F1 · cos(180◦ − 2θ − 90◦ ) = F1 · sin(2θ) (5)
Wheels
The pressure on the slider FS , which is collected by the
Wheel unit pressure sensor, can be got by dividing F2 :
4-bar linkage
FS = F2 · cos θ (6)
clutch mechanism θ

P Ff
Driving mechanism

Screw rod l FP
M
U-shape Connector Pressure Stepper motor
slider slider Sensor  F2 l'
l'
F1
θ θ Fs
E
Fig. 4. The horizontal view of the flexible mechanism of S
the Smart-Spider

Fig. 6. The force analysis of the linkage clutch mechanism

3. IMPLEMENTATION

3.1 Flexible mechanism motion control strategy

The motion of the flexible mechanisms are controlled by

the MCU based on the pressure data between the wheels
and the pipeline inner surface, which are related to the
pressures between the connector slider and the U-shape
slider. In normal straight pipeline without diameter trans-
formation, the pressures are within the threshold ranges.
Fig. 5. The top view of the flexible mechanism of the For some special pipelines, such as oil pipelines, the friction
Smart-Spider between the wheels and the pipeline inner surface, which is
decided by the pressure between them, must be big enough
The force relationship between the force on the wheels to guarantee the Smart-Spider’s normal rolling movement.
and the pressure on the sliders is shown as in Fig. 6. However, when the inner diameter of the pipeline changes,
Through this relationship and the pressures measured the pressures on the wheels will change, and the pressures
by the pressure sensors, the pressures and the friction between the sliders will transform accordingly. The flexible
forces between the wheels and the pipeline inner surface mechanisms will contract when the pressures exceed the
can be calculated. The friction forces are caused by the threshold ranges when the pipeline inner diameter changes
pressures, and suitable friction forces ensure the Smart- into smaller, for example, there is an obstacle or a corner.
Spider moving smoothly. Therefore, these pressures and On the contrary, the flexible mechanisms will extend when
friction forces are critical to the dynamics of the robot. the pressures reduce lower than the threshold ranges.
The length of the bar PE is l. The length of ME and the The pressure threshold range for different flexible mecha-
slider bar SE can be considered to be the same, which is nisms on different positions can be different, that is, the
represented as l′ . The torque on point P relative to point pressure threshold for the two bottom flexible mechanisms
E, which is TP , and the torque on point M relative to Point are much higher than the top one if the robot moves mainly
E, which is TM , are equal, described in equation (1). in the horizontal way. In some situations, the attitude
of the Smart-Spider changes during moving along the
TP = TF (1) pipeline, and if the variation of the attitude is big enough,
a rolling motion can happen. Therefore, the positions of
The torque on point P relative to point E can be calculated the previous top and bottom flexible mechanisms may ex-
as: change. In the MCU, the pressure threshold ranges for each
TP = FP · cos θ · l + Ff · sin θ · l flexible mechanisms need to adjust according to specific
(2) attitude orientations, where the attitude is collected by
= FP · l · (cos θ + µ · sin θ)
254 Ying Qu et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256

In the real-time control system, the collection and the

Beginning
analysis of all the sensor data, and the motion control of
all the stepper motors and DC motors are handled by the
Collecting attitude MCU. The pressure data from the three pressure sensors
data
and the attitude information from the attitude sensor are
Collecting pressure
collected by the MCU. Moreover, the flexible mechanisms’
Attitude data
data from sensors motions based on the pressure and each DC motor’s speed
Judging the flexible is judged in the control strategy in the MCU. Then, the
mechanisms’position
Pressure data PWM signals for controlling the stepper motors and the
from sensors
DC motors are generated by the MCU to the driver boards.
Pressure data are in Y
threshold range Meanwhile, the real time sensor data are transmitted to
N
the Raspberry Pi for displaying on the GUI.
Being stable out of N
threshold
Regarding to the non-realtime control system, the work-
Y
station communicates with the Raspberry Pi through Wifi
Traditional control
in experimental environment. The GUI system is designed
algorithm unit to monitor the image collected by the on-board camera,
and display the (pseudo-) real-time data of the Smart-
PWM & direction Spider. Besides, users can configure the inline robot’s
control signals
motion mode (Auto or Manual) and the motors’ motion
situations through the GUI, which are transmitted to the
Driver PCBs
MCU. Meanwhile, all the real-time data are written into
a SD card for storage and post analysis.
Stepper motors

Fig. 7. The flow chart of the flexible mechanism motion

control based on pressure data
the attitude sensor and the threshold ranges are set by ad
hoc experimental experience at this moment.
The motion strategy of the flexible mechanisms in the
MCU is shown in Fig. 7, and this is for one control-cycle
period. At first, the positions of the three flexible mecha-
nisms are estimated based on the proposed robot’s attitude
measurement, and the threshold ranges for each one can
be decided, where the attitude data are collected by the
attitude sensor. Based on the definite threshold ranges, the
pressure data for each flexible mechanism are compared
with the range. For calculation efficiency, these ranges are
directly defined for the pressure between the sliders, which
omits calculating the pressure on the wheels. If one or more
pressures exceed higher or lower than the threshold ranges,
the MCU will not drive the motors to transform the Smart-
Spider’s diameter immediately, but will store the pressure Fig. 8. The structure of the electronic system
situations until several sampling periods later. If all these
pressures are beyond the threshold ranges, the MCU will
control the stepper motors by sending PWM signals to the 3.3 Actuators and Battery
driver boards after the PI controller. All the three flexible
mechanisms contracting or extending at the same time can DC Motor DC motors with a worm gear box are used
ensure the equilateral triangle mechanical structure of the to output a given torque on the purpose of driving the
three flexible mechanisms, which is a stable structure for wheels to move in a given direction at a specific speed.
the Smart-Spider to fit motion requirements, see Se (2008). Every two DC motors are fixed on the top of one flexible
mechanism, so there are six DC motors in total in the
Smart-Spider. Each DC motor is equipped with a worm
3.2 Task processing gear box to increase the output torque, so each DC motor
with a gear box can actuate two wheels. The speed and
The tasks of the electronic system can be divided into two the direction of the DC motors are controlled by the MCU
categories: real-time tasks and non-realtime tasks, shown controller, based on the requirement of the motion. The
as in Fig. 8. The real-time tasks are implemented by a specifications of the DC motor with a worm gear box are
MCU PCB, which is equipped with STM32F407 control listed in Table. 1.
core. And the non-realtime tasks are implemented by a
Raspberry Pi, installed with Debian operational system. Stepper Motor The function of the stepper motor kits in
Data and commands are transmitted between the MCU the Smart-Spider is to actuate the screw rod, so that the
and the Raspberry Pi through UART. flexible mechanisms can stretch or contract. Three stepper
 Ying Qu et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256 255

Table 1. Specifications of the DC Motors shown in Fig. 10. From the diagrams we can see that the
Smart-Spider can move smoothly along the inner pipeline,
Specification Value
although a small rolling happens, the attitude of the robot
Nominal Voltage 12.0 V
keeps stable.
Nominal Speed 28 rpm
Max. Speed 72 rpm The four steps of the pipeline robot overcoming an obstacle
Rated Current 0.6 A in the pipeline are shown as in Fig. 13, and the pressure
Max. Current 2.3 A
data and the attitude information during the process are
Rated Torque 12.0 Kg.cm
Max. Torque 57.0 Kg.cm
shown as in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12. From 0 s to around
Reduction ratio 1:108 20 s, the Smart-Spider keeps moving forward smoothly,
although some small frequent fluctuations are generated
motors are used, and each stepper motor kit is equipped because of the dumps of the pipeline. At around 20 s, the
at the end of a screw rod, which follows the motion of the robot begins overcoming the obstacle. When the pressures
motors by a coupling connection. To get strong enough increase and exceed higher than the threshold, and hold
torque for driving the flexible mechanisms, a gear box is higher for 10 sampling periods, the three flexible mecha-
applied in the stepper motor kit. The reduction ratior of nisms start contracting at the same time, driven by the
the gear box is 1/52, and the static torque can reach 12.0 MCU until the pressures fall back to the threshold bands
Kg.cm. The specification details of the stepper motor with again. From around 42 s, the robot begins leaving the
a gear box are listed in Table. 2. obstacle, so the pressures on the flexible mechanisms de-
crease suddenly. Therefore, the flexible mechanisms start
Table 2. Specifications of the Stepper Motors stretching to adjust to the pipeline diameter. During this
Specification Value process, the variations of the attitude of the Smart-Spider
Step Angle 1.8 degree is small, that are less than 1.5 deg for roll and around
Nominal Voltage 10.0 V 5 deg for pitch respectively. Therefore, the rolling of the
Rated Current 1.0 A Smart-Spider can be ignored during this process, so the
Static Torque 12.0 Kg.cm threshold range for each flexible mechanism does not need
Reduction ratio 1:52 to be adjusted during the entire experiment.

Battery The Li battery is the main source of the whole 150

140
electronic system, the details of the specifications of which 120
is listed in Table. 3. The capacity can reach as high as 8400
Pressure(N)

100
mAh, although the size is small enough to fixed inside the 80 Left
body tube. Due to the rated current of the DC motors is 60 Right
0.6 A, and the rated current of the stepper motors is 1.0 A, 40
Top

the battery can support the Smart-Spider moving inside 20

the pipeline for around 2 hours. 0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Table 3. Specifications of the Battery Time(s)

Specification Value Fig. 9. The pressure on the three flexible mechanisms of

Type LiPo moving in smooth situation
Output 11.1 V
Cells 3S
Capacity 8400 mAh 5
4 Pitch
Size 155×44×45mm
3 Roll
2
Angle(deg)

1
4. EXPERIMENTS 0
-1
-2
In this experiment, the automatic motion of the Smart- -3
Spider and the feasibility of the flexible mechanisms are -4
-5
verified in the laboratory pipeline, the material of which 0 20 40 60 80 100
is PVC and the inner diameter is 500 mm. The proposed Time(s)
inline robot moves forward automatically completely after
a simple launching. Fig. 10. The attitude of moving in smooth situation
Firstly, the Smart-Spider moves in a pipeline with smooth The user interface of the Smart-Spider system is shown in
inner surface, that is, there is no obstacle inside of the Fig. 14. Not only the real-time image from the camera,
pipeline. Before the experiments, the initial attitude of the the graphical motion situations and some sensor data can
Smart-Spider is that the two bottom flexible mechanisms be monitored on this interface, but also some motion
are nearly at the horizontal flat, that is, the top flexible commands can be handled by the buttons.
mechanism is perpendicular to the horizontal flat. So
the initial pitch(around -4deg) and the roll(around 1deg) From the experiment results, the motion feasibility and the
of the inline robot is very small, shown as in Fig. 9. flexible mechanisms’ automatic control are validated, and
And the initial pressure forces on the flexible mechanisms the expected functions of the Smart-Spider are realized
are approximately 118 N, 88 N and 10 N respectively, satisfactorily.
256 Ying Qu et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 51-8 (2018) 251–256

150
140
For the future Smart-Spider generations, many improve-
120
ments will be applied:
Pressure(N)

100 (1) On-board algorithms for automatic path recognition

80 and planning for complex or unknown pipeline envi-
60 Left
Right ronments;
40 Top (2) Integration with inspection tools for specific applica-
20
tions;
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 (3) Strategies for self-monitoring and self-rescue in case
Time(s) of getting stuck inside the pipelines;
(4) Smart power management design from information
Fig. 11. The pressure on the three flexible mechanisms of collection and energy efficiency aspects.
overcoming an obstacle
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
4
3
2 The authors would like to thank the support from DHRTC
Angle(deg)

1 Radical Project Programme, and particularly thanks go

0 to DHRTC colleagues: Kristine W. Hilstrm and Lene H.
-1 Poulsen, AAU colleagues: Yunlong Wang, Simon Pedersen
-2 Pitch and H. Enevoldsen, for many valuable discussions and
-3 Roll technical supports.
-4
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time(s) REFERENCES

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