Inspection robot tested at Johnson space center and in crude oil tank

摘要

A robotic device for storage tank inspection was put through its paces in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory of NASA's Johnson Space Center on October 2, 1998. The device was tested in the 65-million-gallon (246-million-liter), 40-foot-deep(12-meter-deep) pool where astronauts train for space walks. According to developer Don Hartsell of Solex Robotics (Idaho Falls, ID), this helped his company evaluate the means of disentangling the control and supply cable (called an umbilical) attachedto the robotic device. This is necessary should it become tangled in the intemal support structures inside an aboveground storage tank.