University of Twente Student Theses
Improving the dynamic performance of sewer inspection robot
Sutaria, S.S. (2021) Improving the dynamic performance of sewer inspection robot.
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| Abstract: | The presentation is about the performance improvement of a sewer inspection robot. Under the TISCALI project, Robotics and Mechatronics group has developed a wheeled wall-pressing type pipe inspection robot, which uses the impact-echo method to assess the pipe condition. There are three steps involved in the impact-echo test: stress-wave generation, signal acquisition, and data analysis. The robot mainly focuses on generating stress waves in the concrete sewer pipe. The impact on the pipe wall is made using a steel ball mounted at the end of a lever and torsion spring mechanism. This impactor setup is mounted on a platform operated utilising a scissor lift mechanism. Using a centring mechanism, the robot can adapt to pipe diameter ranging from 350 mm to 500 mm. The scissor lift mechanism can rotate 360o inside the pipe to perform the impact-echo test using a rotating mechanism. The main aim of this thesis was to identify flaws in the design and improve it; implement feedback control to enhance precision and repeatability of impact-echo tests; develop an automated inspection procedure, and optimise the hardware components to make the robot more portable. A position feedback controller is implemented for the lifting mechanism. A Time-of-flight distance sensor is used for the position feedback. A feedback controller is also implemented for the rotation of the scissor lift mechanism. A 3-axis accelerometer sensor is used for the angle feedback. Experiments are performed in a 400 mm diameter PVC pipe. The results show that the centering mechanism can now lift the robot inside the pipe but not enough to completely align the robot with the centre of the robot. It falls short by 15 mm. The lifting mechanism can place the impact-echo setup at the desired distance to the pipe wall with high precision and repeatability. The rotating mechanism rotates the impact-echo setup strictly at any desired angle inside the pipe using the implemented feedback controller. Apart from this, the robot is made portable to carry with ease. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Subject: | 31 mathematics, 52 mechanical engineering, 53 electrotechnology |
| Programme: | Systems and Control MSc (60359) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/89271 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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