Development of an Inspection Platform and a Suite of Sensors for Assessing Corrosion and Mechanical Damage on Unpiggable Trans

The present project focuses on the development of an inspection platform and a sensor suite for the detection of corrosion and mechanical damage in unpiggable pipelines. Much of the existing natural gas infrastructure was designed and built without inspection or pigging as an operational consideration. There are many physical obstacles in the piping system that makes the passage of conventional and SMART pigs impossible. The inspection of unpiggable gas mains (both transmission and distribution) will require the marriage of a highly adaptable/agile robotic platform with advanced sensor technologies operating as a semi-autonomous inspection system. The integration and adaptation of an existing pipeline inspection robot as the underlying platform allows us to springboard over many of the expensive and speculative research activities associated with the development of an entirely new robotic system. In addition, the integration of proven sensor technology significantly reduces the uncertainty and total cost of the proposed research. The concept developed under this project was that of a robotic platform that is train-like in nature. Both front and rear tractors propel the train in either the downstream or upstream directions inside the pipeline. Like a train, the platform includes additional "cars" to carry the required payloads. The cars are used for various purposes including the sensor modules, the power supply, data storage and location/position devices. The on-board intelligence gives the platform the benefit of an engineer steering the train through the complex (yet well defined) pipe geometry. The Pipeline Inspection Robot (RoboScan) is expected to overcome all of the current shortcomings of transmission pigs and has the following performance targets: • Capable of bringing a full suite of NDE sensors into transmission and distribution networks • Self-powered and capable of traveling long distances from the entry point • Negotiate mitered (zero degrees) elbows and tees as well as back to back out-of-plane bends • Navigate in both the horizontal and vertical planes in both directions • Not dependent on pressure drop to "push" the robot • Passable through partially ported plug valves • Automatically adaptable, by a factor of two, to changes in pipe diameter The project was funded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US Department of Energy under Award DE-FC26-02NT41645, the NYSEARCH Committee of the Northeast Gas Association (previous the New York Gas Group). The research contractors were Foster Miller and GE Oil & Gas (PII North America).