Pipeline Inspection Gauge Position Estimation Using Inertial Measurement Unit, Odometer, and a Set of Reference Stations

This paper presents a low-cost methodology to estimate the position of a pipeline inspection gauge (PIG). The environment in which the PIG navigates is inside the thick walls of a metallic pipeline, where it is not possible to receive a global positioning system (GPS) signal. As a consequence, it is necessary to use other means of navigation. A technique is presented in the paper that uses an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a speedometer, and a set of reference stations. A Kalman filter is used to fuse the measurements from the IMU, the speedometer, and the reference stations. The reference stations, with known GPS coordinates, are installed for every set interval to correct the PIG's state estimate from the errors that accumulate due to the integration of the IMU measurements. The paper presents three scenarios. These scenarios differ in the way the update step of the Kalman filter is performed. Experimental results are presented along with a 100-run Monte Carlo test to verify the estimator's consistency.