Custom Crawlers

In order to perform non-destructive testing of long-seam and girth welds inside 20 to 24 inch diameter natural gas pipe, Pacific Gas and Electric Company needed a unique mobile robotic system.

Because the pipe they were inspecting was buried underneath large buildings and surface structures, the remote vehicle needed to be capable of traveling long distances (more than ½ mile in some cases). In addition, the system had to deliver and manipulate a variety of video cameras, Ultrasonic Transducers (UT) and Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMAT) in order to perform the required inspections.

Inuktun was able design and manufacture a mobile robotic inspection system composed of five segments and incorporating three pairs of standard Inuktun Minitrac™ crawler modules in a parallel configuration. The segmented train-like design allows the vehicle to negotiate inclines and travel through mitered bends. A small, magnetic satellite vehicle incorporating UT and EMAT devices can be deployed at any girth weld to perform real-time non-destructive testing. The system also includes a high speed electric brush and vacuum for cleaning, alignment lasers for positioning the NDT equipment, and a laser ring system to measure pipe irregularities. The entire system is surface powered and controlled through custom designed graphical control software.

Part of the internal non-destructive pipe testing system developed for Pacific Gas and Electric