Yujia Li, Qingyou Liu, Yonghua Chen, and Ming Li
Robot, measurement, helical contact, deformation, oil–gas, pipeline
With the rapid increase in oil and gas consumption in the world’s energy consumption structure, the pace of global oil–gas pipeline construction has accelerated. Pipeline accidents that cause huge economic losses occur frequently, so inspection and maintenance of oil and gas pipelines have become critical issues. This paper presents a helical-contact deformation measuring method based on a multi-purpose helical drive in-pipe robot that can be used in harsh 3D unknown enclosed near-circular environments, such as oil–gas pipelines. This measuring device has a simple structure and does not need an additional driving module to rotate the measuring device. The device can rotate together with the robot’s driving wheels and measure pipe diameters ranging from 180 mm to 210 mm. Eccentricity analysis and simulation are also conducted. Experiments in Plexiglas pipe are carried out to draw the pipe shape and test the eccentricity of the measuring device.
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