Navigation of an autonomous sewer inspection robot based on stereo camera images and laser scanner data

Sewer environment is composed of cylindrical pipes, in which only a few landmarks such as manholes, inlets and pipe joints are available for localization. This paper presents a method for navigation of an autonomous sewer inspection robot in a sewer pipe system based on detection of landmarks. In this method, location of an autonomous sewer inspection robot in the sewer pipe system is estimated from stereo camera images. The laser scanner data are also used to ensure accurate localization of the landmarks and reduce the error in distance estimation by image processing. The method is implemented and evaluated in a sewer pipe test field using a prototype robot, demonstrating its effectiveness.