Field Demonstration of Explorer?:A Long-Range Untethered Live Gas Main Inspection System

摘要

This paper reports on the field demonstration of Explorer?, a long range, untethered,rnmodular, remotely controllable, self-powered inspection robot for thernvisual inspection of 6" and 8" natural gas distribution system pipelines. Twornfisheye cameras at each end of the robot provide high quality visual inspectionrncapabilities for locating points of water intrusion and pooling, service taps, castrniron joints, cracked cast iron mains, debris/blockages, or for determining pipelinernconfiguration. The robot can negotiate diameter changes, bends and tees up torn90-degrees, as well as inclined and vertical pieces of the piping network. It isrnlaunched either vertically or at an angle into the pipeline under live conditionsrnutilizing commercial no-blow fitting and tapping machines and specially designedrnattachment launching chambers. The modular design of the system allows it tornbe expanded in the near future to include additional steel pipe wall inspectionrnand/or repair tools. Given that the robot operates without a tether, its range is atrnleast an order of magnitude higher than present state-of-the-art inspectionrnsystems and is expected to fundamentally alter the way gas utilities maintain andrnmanage their systems. A prototype system was built and extensively tested in thernlaboratory. This paper will report on the results of two field demonstrations held inrnlive, low and high pressure gas mains in the summer and fall of 2004. Thernoperational and safety issues will be discussed and results from the visualrninspection of live gas mains will be presented.rnThis development program is a joint effort among NYSEARCH (the R&DrnCommittee of the Northeast Gas Association), Carnegie Mellon University'srnRobotics Institute (RI), and the US Department of Energy (DOE) through thernNational Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), with early phase cofunding fromrnNASA and the participation in the early phase of the project by the Jet PropulsionrnLaboratory (JPL), and the Johnson Space Center (JSC).