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SUMMARY:A new class of maneuverable robots for  Inspection and Mapping of 
 complex networks of gas and water pipes - Tom Bewley\, UCSD
DTSTART:20230608T103000Z
DTEND:20230608T113000Z
UID:TALK201064@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Pearson
DESCRIPTION:A patent pending new class of robots is presented for traversi
 ng networks of pipes with numerous elbows\, joints\, and diameter changes\
 , for fully autonomous tasks including internal inspection\, exploration\,
  and mapping.  The robots proposed have three or more wheels whose center 
 points all lie within a Robot Center Plane.  The robots have minimal compl
 exity\, maximal maneuverability\, static stability\, and fault tolerance\,
  with:\n\nMotors for propelling themselves down the pipe\,\n\nA means for 
 accurately controlling themselves in roll\,\n\nSprings that press the whee
 ls at three or more alternating points of contact against opposite sides o
 f the pipe wall\, thus causing the Robot Center Plane to subsume the cente
 rline of the pipe\, and passively stabilizing the robot orientation in pit
 ch and yaw\, allowing the robot to travel stably\, without feedback\, with
 in a pipe at any orientation with respect to gravity\, and\n\nA novel mean
 s for negotiating both pipe elbows and pipe joints (Tee joints\, Wye joint
 s\, etc)\, as well as substantial pipe diameter changes.\n\n\nAlgorithms t
 o exhaustively route such vehicles through complex networks of connected p
 ipes will also be presented.  This problem is relatively standard (impleme
 nting the Dijkstra\, Eulerization\, and Hierholzer algorithms) in the case
  of small pipe networks.  Note that the optimal Eulerization problem in NP
  hard\, like the traveling salesman problem\; a new Eulerization algorithm
  is presented in this work that gives near optimal performance on small pr
 oblems\, and scales easily to networks with thousands of odd nodes.  Recen
 t work on extending such strategies to very large pipe networks\, in which
  all of the pipes of the network can not be traversed by the robot on a si
 ngle charge\, and in fact multiple entry points to the network are necessa
 ry\, will also be discussed.
LOCATION:Open Plan Area\, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows\, M
 adingley Rise CB3 0EZ
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