Development of a screw drive in-pipe robot for passing through bent and branch pipes

Abstract

This paper presents a screw drive in-pipe robot for passing through bent and branch pipes. The robot is composed of a front unit (rotator), a rear unit (stator), and a middle unit (pathway selection mechanism). Each unit has elastic arms with a pair of passive wheels. It enables the robot to travel and steer not only in straight pipes but also in bent and branch pipes. In this paper, to clarify the mobility of the screw drive in-pipe robot, experimental verifications in a bent pipe and a T-branch are conducted.