A Novel Hybrid Robot for In-Pipe Maintenance and Inspection

Pipelines play a crucial role in the movement of key resources such as water, oil, and gas in today’s globe. The continued development of urbanization is resulting in a significant annual increase in the number of pipes. The prompt maintenance and inspection of pipeline infrastructure are becoming difficult due to the extensive length of the pipelines and restricted external accessibility. Therefore, certain sections of the pipeline require internal repairs. The novelty of this research letter lies in a hybrid robot with an implemented manipulator to conduct maintenance work via teleoperation control. This hybrid robot is capable of inspecting and performing pipeline renovation tasks, including debris removal and welding operations. A laboratory prototype was developed for experimental validation in a controlled environment. Experimental results demonstrate that the debris detection time during in-pipe cleaning was approximately 0.87 s, enabling responsive operator feedback. Moreover, the robot successfully completed a simulated welding task by tracing a rectangular path with mean positional errors of 0.0277 m (x-axis), 0.0030 m (y-axis), and 0.0094 m (z-axis), showcasing high accuracy and precise linear motion critical for in-pipe repair operations. This study article is structured as follows: robot design concept, robot control, anomaly detection and inspection, in-pipe maintenance, and conclusion.