Wireless-type magnetic micro-actuator capable of movement in a pipe

There is an increasing demand for in-piping robots, which are able to quickly locate damage and remedy undesirable conditions inside the pipes used in plants for chemical and biological materials, and other such installations. Safety issues have encouraged the growing use of such robots in recent years for a variety of duties, not only for inspections, but also for maintenance and cleaning. Many papers have addressed possible mechanisms for moving within pipelines. This paper proposes a new wireless-type actuator movable in a thin pipe. The actuator is based on a small, mechanical inverter which directly converts the DC from a button battery pack to AC. Switching is performed by the vibration of a cantilever beam and one degree of freedom model. A prototype actuator has been fabricated containing a DC-AC inverter and is able to move through a pipe of 14 mm inner diameter (ID). The driving characteristics and the range of the actuator were observed.