Development of MFL system for in-pipe robot for unpiggable natural gas pipelines

Author

Dae-Kwang Kim ; Hui-Ryong Yoo ; Jung-Soo Yoo ; Dong-Kyu Kim ; Sung-Ho Cho ; Sung-Ja Koo ; Rho-Yong Woo ; Hae-Kyo Jung

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon, South Korea

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 30 2013-Nov. 2 2013

Firstpage

51

Lastpage

54

Abstract

This paper introduces a MFL system developed by a research project, which has been being conducted by KOGAS and initiated in 2011, to develop ILI (In-Line Ispection) Robot named “PIBOT” for the inspection of 16” to 14” unpiggable natural gas pipelines. All elements and functions in the proposed MFL (Magnetic Flux Leakage) system were designed to minimize friction between magnetizer and pipe wall and maximize defect detectability. To enhance driving performance and the ability of obstacle-negotiation, shunting system that can control direction of magnetic flux was developed. The performance of proposed MFL system was verified in the UPSF (Unpiggable Pipeline Simulation Facility) constructed to undertake several kinds of performance test about defect detectability, driving efficient and pressure resistance ability.

Keywords

inspection; mobile robots; natural gas technology; pipelines; KOGAS; MFL system; PIBOT; defect detectability maximization; friction minimization; in-line ispection robot; in-pipe robot; magnetic flux leakage system; magnetizer; obstacle-negotiation; pipe wall; pressure resistance ability; shunting system; unpiggable natural gas pipelines; unpiggable pipeline simulation facility; MFL system; Unpiggable pipeline; in-pipe robot;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), 2013 10th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Jeju

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-1195-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/URAI.2013.6677469

Filename

6677469