Sewage Pipeline Inspection Tool & Robot

Abstract Pipelines are one of the most important parts of water supplies, oil/gas transportation, and sewage transportation. Within these categories of pipelines, sewers are one of the easiest pipelines to be affected by their operation environments where untreated human and industrial waste cause degradation and corrosion resulting in the leakage of toxic effluents to the environment. The difficulty of pipeline inspection increases significantly as the pipeline system increase in complexity. The conventional pipe inspection methods are vision, ultrasonic, laser, and x-ray. Under these cases, novel inspection methods were proposed such as using the electromagnetic field and microwave measurements and scanning for detecting defects and cracks in the pipelines. These methods can operate in more complex pipe environments and provide more accurate results. Despite the benefits of these measurement methods, current methods utilize visual inspection using Closed Circuit Television cameras. Inspecting a storm drain often requires visual inspections, but in some cases, it may be challenging for untrained personnel to perform the inspection. This becomes problematic when an inspection needs to be performed on a regular basis, otherwise, the rate of debris buildup will be unknown which can lead to greater issues. In this research, a self-propelled robotic device was proposed that utilizes both conventional and novel instruments for in-pipe inspection to increase the amount of retrieved data which extends beyond visual scans. The approach allows a more thorough evaluation in determining the health of an aqueduct. A modular sensor system is proposed designed along with a carrying robotic system. The modular sensor system has the ability to integrate the necessary sensors for novel inspection methods and the potential for future improvements and integration.