The concept and research of a pipe crawling rescue robot

This paper presents the control algorithm and design of a pipe crawling robot which can be used for the purpose of earthquake rescue and pipeline maintenance. The robot is designed to be able to intelligently alter its body shape to fit the pipe or tunnel-like voids within rubble. The paper introduces a simulation to test how the robot alters its body shape to fit voids. The control algorithm uses a look-up table method combined with the method of least squares to predict the shape of the robot under the influence of actuators. The paper also presents the design of both the hardware and software systems of the robot, and laboratory experiments on the robot body module. Computer simulation results by using MATLAB and the experimental results indicate the feasibility of the robot body shape change control algorithm proposal.