This paper addresses automated mapping of the remaining wall thickness of metallic pipelines in the field by means of an inspection robot equipped with Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) sensing. Set in the context of condition assessment of critical infrastructure, the integrity of arbitrary sections in the conduit is derived with a bespoke robot kinematic configuration that allows dense pipe wall thickness discrimination in circumferential and longitudinal direction via NDT sensing with guaranteed sensing lift-off (offset of the sensor from pipe wall) to the pipe wall, an essential barrier to overcome in cement-lined water pipelines. The data gathered represents not only a visual understanding of the condition of the pipe for asset managers, but also constitutes a quantative input to a remaining-life calculation that defines the likelihood of the pipeline for future renewal or repair. Results are presented from deployment of the robotic device on a series of pipeline inspections which demonstrate the feasibility of the device and sensing configuration to provide meaningful 2.5D geometric maps.
CITATION STYLE
Miro, J. V., Hunt, D., Ulapane, N., & Behrens, M. (2018). Towards Automatic Robotic NDT Dense Mapping for Pipeline Integrity Inspection. In Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics (Vol. 5, pp. 319–333). Springer Science and Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67361-5_21
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