Design and Development Kroto Finder

V. Mallikarjuna, 2k.Rajesh 3C.Chandra Sekhara

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,Joginapally BR Engineering

College,Yenkapally(v),Moinabad(m),R.R(dist),Hyd-500075,India email:

mallikarjunav83@gmail.com
2Assistant
3Assistant

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MREC (Autonomous),Hyd-500075,India.

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MREC (Autonomous),Hyd-500075,India

ABSTRACT - Robotics is one of the fastest growing

engineering fields of today. Robots are designed to remove the
human factor from labor intensive or dangerous work and also
to act in inaccessible environment. Robot capable of moving
inside pipes and detecting limestone clogs. It had to been
controlled by a basic stamp and includes sensors and actuators.
It should be easily monitored and controlled by humans. The
inspection of pipes may be relevant for improving security and
efficiency in horizontally arranged pipes. The pipelines are the
major tools for the transportation of fuel oils and gas. A lot of
troubles caused by piping networks aging, cracks and
mechanical damages are possible. The robots with a flexible
structure may boast adaptability to the environment, especially
to the pipe diameter, with enhanced dexterity, maneuverability,
Capability to operate under hostile conditions.

Key Words: Inchworm Robots,

I.

INTRODUCTION
Pipelines form a very crucial part of the way we live
today as they are the primary means of transporting many of
the resources that we depend on, such as water, gas and oil.
Many of these pipelines are situated underground so as not to
affect everyday life. However, this makes repair and
inspection of the pipelines a costly and difficult task,
especially since many pipelines have not been designed to
optimise automatic repair and inspection tasks and rarely
have any redundancy. Without a reliable method of
determining the exact location of a problem, large sections of
a pipeline may need to be excavated. This can be made even
more difficult if the pipes are situated in an urban
environment, where the repair work can have a negative
impact on the local residents and businesses.
Robotics is one of the fastest growing engineering fields
of today. Robots are designed to remove the human factor
from labor intensive or dangerous work and also to act in
inaccessible environment. The use of robots is more common
today than ever before and it is no longer exclusively used by
the heavy production industries.
The inspection of pipes may be relevant for improving
security and efficiency in industrial plants. These specific
operations as inspection, maintenance, cleaning etc. are
expensive, thus the application of the robots appears to be
one of the most attractive solutions. Pipelines which are tools
for transporting oils, gases and other fluids such as
chemicals, have been employed as major utilities in a
number of countries for long time.
A robot capable of navigating pipelines could help
pinpoint the exact location of faults and possibly even be
involved in the repair process. The development of a robot
capable of functioning whilst the pipeline is still active
would be of great commercial and industrial benefit as it
would allow operation of the pipeline to be completely
unaffected by any maintenance tasks.

Assessment of Existing Pipe Inspection Robots:

Although there have been many robots designed for the
purpose of pipe inspection, most of these focus on operation
in empty pipes and do not take into account the effects of
pressurized fluid on the motion and stability of the robot.
Existing pipe inspection robots can be categorized by their
different locomotion methods: Wheeled inchworm, snake
and legged.
Wheeled Robots:
Wheeled robots are widely used in this application due
to their simple design and control methodologies, energy
efficiency and potential for miniaturization. The simplest of
these behave similar to regular wheeled vehicles in that they
rely on their own weight to maintain contact between their
wheels and the pipe wall.
In order to overcome these problems, some wheeled
pipe inspection robots have attempted to use an active
method of attracting the wheels to the pipe wall. Examples of
such robots have exclusively relied on magnetism. Although
the design of both these robots means that they are not
restricted by pipe diameter, their use of magnets limits their
operational environment to those which are constructed
primarily of ferrous materials.
Other wheeled pipe inspection robots operate by
pressing their wheels against the pipe surface through
passive means (e.g. springs), or active means (e.g. linear
actuators), or a combination of both. Examples of such
robots are MOGRER, the screw-drive robot presented in and
the MRINSPECT series of robots . Although these robots
each have distinctive designs, they all follow the same
general principle of pushing their wheels against the pipe
wall and using them to propel down the pipe. Of particular
note is Explorer, a segmented robot that is used for the
inspection of gas pipelines.
Despite their mechanical simplicity, the efficiency of
wheeled robots whilst climbing is not optimal, as the force
used to push the wheels against the pipe wall acts against the
actuators trying to drive the wheels.
Inchworm Robots:
Inchworm-type robots, like wheeled robots, are
relatively simple to control and allow the robot to navigate
the various features inside the pipe. Each of these robots
uses a vibration source as the main driving force, coupled
with a passive mechanical system pressing against the pipe
wall. The simple nature of these robots means that they are
easy to control and usually have very few parts, but are
incapable of navigating junctions.
These robots all use a form of linear actuation for
propulsion, coupled with full control over the extension and

retraction of their limbs, which allows them to easily move

forwards and backwards along the pipe. Examples of such
robots have been demonstrated to navigate straight pipe
sections and bends.
Unlike wheeled robots, inchworm robots cannot
continuously move forwards, but rather move forward in
steps, which can make them slower than their wheeled
counterparts. However, they are likely to be more efficient
during climbing as the force pushing the robots feet against
the pipe wall acts perpendicular to the robots direction of
motion and thus does not hinder it.
There are many types of activities in pipe inspection, the
common activities are such as visual inspection by using
camera and non-destructive testing (NDT) such as ultrasonic
testing or using eddy-current testing. After which type of inpipe inspection activities are selected then the next concern
is in the design of the robot and the configuration of the
robotic system. Usually, the crucial aspects in designing the
robot is the shape and size which affect the movement of the
robot in the pipe. This is also depends on the layout of the
entire pipeline structure.
Current Trend of In-Pipe Inspection Applications:
Many researchers are going to develop the in-pipe
inspection robot to improve its adaptability for different
pipes diameters. Improve Traction force for it to be able to
pull its self with its peripherals in horizontal and vertical
pipes. Improve the signal transmission system to be able to
move for long distance. They are some programs software
are using to designing, modelling, assembling and
developing on pipe with diameter 750mm, in the future are
going to implement this model on the ground also increase
the strength and the size of robot component to run for long
distance.

Fig.1: Pipe Inspection Robot (PIR)

CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING
Design of the inspection robot depends on two main
critical factors: size and shape of the pipeline. It will weigh
strongly on the maneuverability of robot and its dimensions.
An ideal robot should:
1. drive through a pipe that can change its diameter along
his pattern;
2. cope with elbows and branches, reducer, valves with
unexpected mechanical damages that could change its
mechanical configuration;

3.
4.

have sufficient traction to move and to carry out tasks

as measurements or clogging detection in a slippery
and not plane surface as a pipe
be robust and reliable

Mechanical design:

Several constrains were taking into account in the first

phase of the mechanical design. They were:
minimal and maximal dimensions:

0 w R D / 2 sin 45 o R D / 2 ,

The maximal dimension was given by the nominal pipe

diameter we wanted to expect, of six inch. In addition, the
robot was build to inspect pipes clogged by limestone, so we
decided that it should be able to move in pipes of up to 5
inch of inner diameter. One fundamental and critical aspect
were corners. As shown in the picture below, the width (w)
and high (h) of the robot influences each other, and the
following formula1 has been used to design the robot:
The minimal acceptable dimension instead was given by
the room necessary to equip the robot with a Basic Stamp, all
the circuitery, the data acquisition devices, the sensors and
motors and the power supplies needed.
Weight:
Weight was another critical parameter. A light robot was
desired in order to need less power to move, to be agile and
to run in vertical pipes. However, this factor was influenced
by the motors choice and the batteries needed.
Approximately 50% of the total weight was caused by the
batteries and motor. However any other kind of propulsion or
power supply we thought was discarded, and this seems to be
the only possible way to have a compact and self propelled
vehicle.
Moving ability:

The moving ability was probably the greatest problem to

deal with. The smooth surface of the pipes was something
difficult to cope with and the round surface adds further
difficulties. The robot was intended to move not only in
horizontal but also in vertical pipes, so it has to hold onto the
surfaces and have the necessary grip and power to climb
them. All this requirements had to face with the reality of the
chosen traction engine, the DC motors, and with our limited
budget. We decided to use four rubber tyres of 1 inch of
diameter, because they showed good grip, were light, cheap
and compatible with the robot dimension. As will be better
explained later we decided to have a robot made up of two 1
H.R. Choi, S.M. Ryew. Robotic system with active steering
capability for internal inspection of urban gas pipelines.
Mechatronics 12 (2002) 713736 different autonomous
parts. In order to link them, four strips of rubber with
approximate dimensions of 5 cm length 1 cm width and 1 cm
height rubber were made, and fixed to the frame. The rubber
was reinforced with a linear spring to obtain the desired
flexibility and rigidity when approaching an elbow.
Power request:
The motors used work with a 12 V dc current. They
have a power request of approximately 1W. The Basic Stamp
will be independent and equipped with a 9V battery. We
decided to use 9V batteries in parallel also for the motors, in
order to provide the sufficient current requested, but this
added lot of weight to the robot. One future improvement
will be to use more efficient power supply with rechargeable
lithium batteries. However, the last period is good and the
robot will be able to work for about 30 minutes before of
batteries discharge.
Frame and transmission:
The body of robot is designed to be compact and
flexible and to have enough traction to climb vertical pipes.
Mechanically the robot is made up of two autonomous and
identical driving vehicle, connected by a flexible material.
We will call them number 1 and number 2. We chose to
build a robot with only two vehicle, but this has been done
only for budget and time issues. It is possible to link as many
vehicle as you wish, and this is preferable if more room is
needed. Indeed, the more vehicle are linked the best will be
the dynamical behaviour of the robot.
The mechanical transmission drives the vehicle thanks
to gears and flexible belts. Since the two wheels of each
independent part have to turn in opposite directions (one
clockwise, the other contra-clockwise) to move the robot, we
used four aluminium gears from the pinion gear of the dc
motor.
We decided to use this kind of transmission in order to
have two wheels driven by the same motor and mounted on
folding arms that can cope with different diameter of the
pipes. We used bearings and grease to reduce the
unavoidable mechanical loss.
Motors:
The robot is equipped with two motors, one on number
1 and one on number 2. Two identical motors were ordered
from Jameco and since we didnt need high speed but high
torque we chose two 12 V dc Reversible Gear Head Motors.
They work at 12V and at approximately 60 rpm.
Unfortunately one of the motors didnt work well and we
didnt have time to replace with an identical one. We

replaced it with a similar but not same, that worked at

different rpm. They exhibited good torque but needed lot of
current and energy supply. To activate them, we will use two
full bridge and pulse-width-modulation (PWM), as shown in
the scheme below. Each bridge has two inputs to control the
base leads of the
pair of transistors.

Unfortunately, due to the changing of the motor, the Hbridge chosen didnt work properly. To let them work at the
same speed ratio then, and to have the same angular velocity
for the wheels, we tried to use a potentiometer to adjust
number 2 at lower voltage, at approximately 9 V. This is only
a partial solution that will be fixed in the future.
Construction:
During the construction and assembly of the robot we
found some critical parts that need to be explained in more
detail. The first is about the folding arms. At first we decided
to have only one cantilever beam per wheel, using a square
aluminum sheet (dimensions 60mm x 2mm x 0.250 mm).
The main problem was how to lock it firmly to the frame,
since it had to sustain all the weight of the robot, and leave at
the same time the freedom to bend. In addition it had to leave
the shaft with the pulley free to spin inside it. As soon as we
finished it we realized that it was not stiff enough to deal
with the transmission and keep the robot tight to the pipes
surface. Then we decided to use two aluminum cantilever for
each wheel, one for each side of the wheel, and in this
second version the robot behave much better and worked
properly.
However it probably remains the most critical part for the
mechanical system, for their intrinsic complexity and for the
small tolerance related with their dimension. Another
possible enhancement for a new version in the future will be
the spring system for the folding arms. We chose to use one
linear spring for each arm because of the simplicity and
easiness to assemble it. However the main problem is the
bending moment resultant on each arm for the spring, in a
complex and delicate component as the folding arms.
Different solutions have been considered, as other ways to
link them from the frame to the arms, or using torsion
springs instead of linear one, but they have not been tried
because too hard to been realized in short time.
LOCOMOTION:
About the locomotion, the power delivered by the motors
seems enough for our needs, however as told before a better
power supply is required for an enhanced version. The main
problems are narrow elbows, because sometimes the robot
collide the wall and blocks itself. This is due mainly to its
shape full of corners. A necessary enhancement will be to
build a smooth body to house the frame and the electrical
components. This seems something necessary also
considering the environment in which it will operate. The
contact with liquids (water) and debris present in the pipes is

something to avoid for the circuitry and the gear system, and
a waterproof shell seems indispensable for the robot.
Several other improvements are possible for future
works, from cameras and lights to see the interior of the
pipes to wireless communication, and grinding machines to
erode the limestone, and this project is only the first stone for
a bigger figure.

Fig : A (230V-12V) Transformer

Principle of Transformer:
POWER SUPPLY:
Main building block of any electronic system is the
power supply to provide required power for their operation
for the microcontroller +5V, required. The power supply
provides regulated output voltage of +5V, three terminal IC
7805 meets the requirement of +5V regulated. The secondary
voltage from the main transformer is rectified by diodes D1D4 and are filtered by capacitor C1. This unregulated dc
voltage is supplied to input pin of regulator IC. C2 is an
input bypass capacitor and C3 is to improve ripple rejection.
The IC used are fixed regulator with internal short circuit
current limiting and thermal shut down capability
Transformer:
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy
from one circuit to another through inductively coupled
conductors - the transformer's coils or "windings". Except for
air-core transformers, the conductors are commonly wound
around a single iron-rich core, or around separate but
magnetically-coupled cores.

The transformer is based on two principles:

Firstly, that an electric current can produce a
magnetic field (electromagnetism).
Secondly that a changing magnetic field within a
coil of wire induces a voltage across the ends of the
coil (electromagnetic induction).
Changing the current in the primary coil changes the
magnitude of the applied magnetic field. The changing
magnetic flux extends to the secondary coil where a voltage
is induced across its ends.
Energy Losses in Transformer
An ideal transformer would have no energy losses, and
would be 100% efficient. In practical transformers energy is
dissipated in the windings, core, and surrounding structures.
Larger transformers are generally more efficient, and those
rated for electricity distribution usually perform better than
98%.
Experimental transformers using superconducting
windings achieve efficiencies of 99.85%, while the increase
in efficiency is small, when applied to large heavily-loaded
transformers the annual savings in energy losses are
significant.
A small transformer, such as a plug-in "wall-wart" or
power adapter type used for low-power consumer
electronics, may be no more than 85% efficient, with
considerable loss even when not supplying any load. Though
individual power loss is small, the aggregate loss from the
very large number of such devices is coming under increased
scrutiny.

Fig. An Ideal Transformer

A simplified transformer design is shown above. A

current passing through the primary coil creates a magnetic
field. The primary and secondary coils are wrapped around a
core of very high magnetic permeability, such as iron; this
ensures that most of the magnetic field lines produced by the
primary current are within the iron and pass through the
secondary coil as well as the primary coil.

The losses vary with load current, and may be expressed

as "no-load" or "full-load" loss. Winding resistance
dominates load losses, whereas hysteresis and eddy currents
losses contribute to over 99% of the no-load loss. The noload loss can be significant, meaning that even an idle
transformer constitutes a drain on an electrical supply, which
encourages development of low-loss transformers (also see
energy efficient transformer).
Winding resistance

Current flowing through the windings causes resistive

heating of the conductors. At higher frequencies, skin effect
and proximity effect create additional winding resistance and
losses.
Hysteresis losses
Each time the magnetic field is reversed, a small amount
of energy is lost due to hysteresis within the core. For a
given core material, the loss is proportional to the frequency,
and is a function of the peak flux density to which it is
subjected.
Eddy currents
Ferromagnetic materials are also good conductors, and a
solid core made from such a material also constitutes a single
short-circuited turn throughout its entire length. Eddy
currents therefore circulate within the core in a plane normal
to the flux, and are responsible for resistive heating of the
core material.
Magnetostriction

They are available in a variety of outputs. The most

common part numbers start with the numbers 78 or 79 and
finish with two digits indicating the output voltage. The
number 78 represents positive voltage and 79 negative one.
The 78XX series of voltage regulators are designed for
positive input. And the 79XX series is designed for negative
input. The LM78XX series typically has the ability to drive
current up to 1A. For application requirements up to 150mA,
78LXX can be used.
As mentioned above, the component has three legs: Input
leg which can hold up to 36VDC Common leg (GND) and
an output leg with the regulator's voltage. For maximum
voltage regulation, adding a capacitor in parallel between the
common leg and the output is usually recommended.
Typically a 0.1MF capacitor is used. This eliminates any
high frequency AC voltage that could otherwise combine
with the output voltage.

Magnetic flux in a ferromagnetic material, such as the

core, causes it to physically expand and contract slightly with
each cycle of the magnetic field, an effect known as
magnetostriction. This produces the buzzing sound
commonly associated with transformers, and in turn causes
losses due to frictional heating in susceptible cores.
Mechanical losses
In addition to magnetostriction, the alternating magnetic
field causes fluctuating electromagnetic forces between the
primary and secondary windings. These incite vibrations
within nearby metalwork, adding to the buzzing noise, and
consuming a small amount of power.

Fig.: LM7805

Stray losses
Leakage inductance is by itself lossless, since energy
supplied to its magnetic fields is returned to the supply with
the next half-cycle. However, any leakage flux that intercepts
nearby conductive materials such as the transformer's
support structure will give rise to eddy currents and be
converted to heat.

Fig. Circuit Diagram of LM7805

Terminals
Very small transformers will have wire leads connected
directly to the ends of the coils, and brought out to the base
of the unit for circuit connections. The primary winding in
the transformer is connected to standard 230V supply and the
secondary winding is connected to the circuit. A voltage of
12V is supplied to the circuit from the transformer. Hence
transformer converts 230V to 12V as per required for the
devices in the circuit to operate.
Voltage Regulator
A voltage regulator is an electrical regulator designed to
automatically maintain a constant voltage level. Voltage
Regulator (regulator), usually having three legs, converts
varying input voltage and produces a constant regulated
output voltage.

As a general rule the input voltage should be limited to 2

to 3 volts above the output voltage. The LM78XX series can
handle up to 36 volts input, be advised that the power
difference between the input and output appears as heat. If
the input voltage is unnecessarily high, the regulator will
overheat. Unless sufficient heat dissipation is provided
through heat sinking, the regulator will shut down.

Fig : Internal Block Diagram of LM7805

The LM78XX series of three-terminal positive regulator

are available in the TO-220 package and with several fixed
output voltages, making them useful in a wide range of
applications. Each type employs internal current limiting,
thermal shut down and safe operating area protection,
making it essentially indestructible. If adequate heat sinking
is provided, they can deliver over 1A output current.
Although designed primarily as fixed voltage regulators,
these devices can be used with external component to obtain
adjustable voltages and currents.
Features

Output current up to 1A

Output voltages of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24V

Thermal overload protection

Short circuit protection

Output Transistor safe operating area protection

SCOPE
The Most common method of pipeline inspection is
using a remote-controlled-machine equipped with a CCTV
(closed circuit TV). The CCTV for in pipe inspection still in
progress especially when they develop the system that it
takes pictures of inner surface of the pipe and produces high
quality unwrapped images. OYO-USA has developed a new
type of sewer inspection system called SSET, which is
equipped with a fisheye lens Development and Adaptability
of In-Pipe Inspection Robots to get a direct view to
the pipe wall.
A new approach is developed to overcome the limitation
of SSET. The developed system uses larger area of side view
and constructs high quality stitched side view images. Side

view unwrapping and stitching technology using image

process technology are developed which delivers high
resolution image data. Digital image scanning method is an
innovative method for the pipe condition assessment High
quality images would bring dependable condition assessment
of the pipes as well as the convenience of digital technology.
Nowadays, there are many techniques for inspection in
this paper will review nondestructive evaluation methods.
Noncontact inspection techniques can be classified into
optical and no optical techniques. Non-contact optical
inspection techniques include machine vision system,
conventional optical instruments (optical comparators and
microscopes), Laser system (scanning laser device), linear
array devices, and optical triangulation techniques. Noncontact non- optical inspection techniques include: electrical
field techniques, radiation techniques, and ultrasonic
inspection methods. In in-pipe inspection robot have used
machine vision (computer vision) in most of them because of
the distinction is that machine vision tends to imitate the
capabilities of the human optical sensory system which
includes not only the eyes but also the complex interpretive
powers of the brain.
AutoCAD design

Circuitry

Fig. Circuit Diagram of LM7805

RESULT:
We tested our Pipe-inspection robot in various pipes and
we find out the problems such as damages, cracks, corrosion
ect. Following are the results we found by inspecting with
the pipe-inspection robot
First we send our pipe-inspection robot into plastic pipe
of 3.5m length and we found a crack in the pipe at a
distance of 2meter from initial point by viewing on the
screen.
Secondly we send our pipe-inspection robot into steel
pipe of 10m length and we found a damage inside the
pipe at a distance 6m from initial point by viewing on
the screen.
Then we send our pipe- inspection robot into cement
pipe of 10m length and we found a damage inside the
pipe at a distance of 3m from the initial point by
viewing on the screen.

Testing in Plastic Pipe

Testing in Cement Pipe

CONCLUSION
A very important design goal of the robotic systems is
the adaptability to the inner diameters of the pipes. So, we
had proposed a new design in inspecting pipelines. The
major advantage is that it could be used in case of pipe
diameter variation with the simple mechanism. We
developed a pipe inspection robot that can be applied to 140180mm pipeline. The kinematics of mechanism and actuator
sizing of this robot have been investigated. A real prototype
was developed to test the feasibility of this robot for
inspection of in-house pipelines. We used a PCB board that
can operate DC motor. Good conceptive and element design
could manage all the problems.
The types of inspection tasks are very different. A
modular design was considered for PIC that can be easily
adapted to new environments with small changes. Presence
of obstacles within the pipelines is a difficult issue. In the
proposed mechanism the problem is solved by a spring
actuation and increasing the flexibility of the mechanism.
The propulsion of the robot has been successfully conducted
using only three motors, a radical simplification over
existing efforts. The robot is designed to be able to traverse
horizontal and vertical pipes. We had experimented our
project and we got the test results. Several types of modules
for pipe inspection minirobot have been presented. Many of
the design goals of the Pipe inspection robot have been
completely fulfilled.
REFERENCES
1.

Testing
in Steel Pipe

2.

Horodinca M, Dorftei I, Mignon E and Preumont A (2002), A

Simple Architecture for in Pipe Inspection Robots, in Proc.
Int. Colloq. Mobile, Autonomous Systems, pp. 61-64.
Jadran Lenari and Roth B (2006), Advances in Robot
Kinematics: Mechanisms and Motion, 1st Edition.

3.
4.
5.
6.

Mhramatsu M, Namiki N, Koyama U and Suga Y (2000),

Autonomous Mobile Robot in Pipe for Piping Operations, in
Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots, Systems, Vol. 3.
Paul E Sandin (2003), Robot Mechanisms and Mechanical
Devices, 1st Edition.
www.google.com
www.wikipedia.com

[1] C. Anthierens, C. Prelle, A., Jutard, M. Btemps, Pneumatic

Actuated Microrobot for In-Pipe Locomotion, 4th JapanFrance / 2nd Asia-Europe Congress on Mechatronics,
Kitakyushu, Japan, 6-8 october, 1998.
[2] H. Nishikawa, T. Sasaya, T. Shibata, T. Kaneko, N. Mitumoto,
S. Kawakita and N. Kawahara, DENSO CORPORATION,
Japan, In-Pipe Wireless Micro Locomotive System, in Proc.
International