Slim Pipe Inspection Robot Using Extension type Flexible Pneumatic Actuator with Axial Elastic/Rigid Fiber Restraint

Takumi ISHIBASHI, Tetsuya AKAGI, Takashi SHINOHARA, Shujiro DOHTA, Masashi YOKOTA, Feifei CHO, Yuma ADACHI

The 12th JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power HIROSHIMA 2024

Japan Fluid Power System Society

HIROSHIMA

In Japan, pipe inspection robots are required in many kinds of pipes for water supply, nuclear reactor and so on. A flexible and slim robot is desirable for traveling inside complex pipe. To improve mobility in pipes and facilitate recovering, a slim straight-shaped pipe inspection robot when no when it is not pressurized is required. In this study, a slim pipe inspection robot using extension type flexible pneumatic actuator with axial elastic/rigid fiber restraint was proposed and tested. The analytical model of the robot for coiling motion was also proposed and tested. As a result, it could be confirmed that the tested robot could travel in the pipe with about ten times diameter of the robot by coiling and extension motions like a snake.