Advanced pipe inspection robot using rotating probe

Recently many plants' pipes and drains became old and many robots to inspect these pipes were developed in the past. Wired robots were put to practical use, but they had a heavy power supply and a signal wire. Therefore, new inspection robots using wireless radio communication system are considered useful for long complex pipes and long distance pipes including straight, vertical and bend line. But sending wireless radio signals isn't practical because the properties of the radio wave are affected by the shape and material of the pipes. For these reasons, we measured the properties of wireless radio signal with steel pipes and ceramic pipes and we developed a practical wireless radio communication system. On the other hand, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has researched a rotating probe using piezo element for inspecting the inside of pipes with a touch sensor system. This time, we developed and tested a new inspection robot that had integrated both the inspection system using wireless radio communication and image transmission developed by Waseda University and the inspection system using the rotating probe developed by the Indian Institute of Technology. In this experiment, we confirmed that we could drive the robot by wireless radio communication system in the inside test pipe and collect the image and some signals from the rotating probe.