Underground sewage crawler

Project Title

Underground sewage crawler

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

The summary of developing this new technology is to mechanize sewer inspections in order to reduce the labour risks, objectify sewer inspections and optimize sewer cleaning expenses.

Sewer inspections require many people to work in risky and unhealthy conditions. Introducing a robotic solution in this process aims at reducing the labour risks, improving the precision of sewer inspections and optimizing sewer cleaning.This system should be able to determine the state of the sewer in order to identify sewer segments, where its functionality has been reduced either by sediments or by structural defects. The coastal pollution is another issue to be treated for those robotic solutions

Project Objectives

Thousands of miles of underground pipes are responsible for handling important tasks. They have to operate reliably. Internal inspection and maintenance has so far only been possible where pipe diameters are large. Relatively small sewers do not offer enough space for human beings, and whenever they were damaged the only solution was to expose the affected pipe sections. However, new developments in the field of electronics and motion control engineering now make it possible to inspect and perform maintenance in small sewers - internally. Since in the sewage sector all tools have to meet very high standards of reliability and performance, the drives on such sewer robots have to be extremely robust. Modern bell-type armature DC motors satisfy the exacting requirements for use inside of the pipe system.

Project Implementation Method

The  hardware design consists of following modules; forward and backward motion module, and two identical modules which are the front and rear cleaning modules. The forward and backward motion module will be structured from a basic frame with four wheels (crawler car) using servo motors. It will be responsible for the robot’s forward and backward motion, and it carries the camera for the inner view. The other two cleaning modules will be attached to it. The front cleaning module contains four curved parts that move in a rotational motion, and they are responsible for the cleaning process. It has two motion types and two positions related to these curved parts (e.g. rotational and radial motions, closed or opened positions). To clean the inner surface of the water pipe two robot arm claw will be used to cover the outer surface of the four curved parts to brush and clean the inner surface of the water pipe. The curved parts will radially out to have the open position of the robot and to perform cleaning. After cleaning, these curved parts constitute together a part of cylinder shape (to take the pipe inner surface cylindrical shape). A closed position will be initiated  at the start while entering the water pipe and at the end while getting out of the water pipe using motor drivers. 

Benefits of the Project

(1) High security. Use the pipeline robot to enter the pipeline to find out the internal situation of the pipeline or eliminate the hidden danger of the pipeline efficiently.

(2) Labor-saving. The pipe inspection robot is small and light, which can be operated by a single person. The controller can be mounted on the car, saving labor and space.

(3) Save time and cost to perform manual sewage cleaning.

(4) High protective robot which will not damage the pipeline.

(5) Where the labor cannot reach there robot can work easily.  

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

In this project we use the following equipment to make the final structure  of robot:

1. Ardiuno UNO Kit

2. Crawler Car

3. Servo Motors

4. Camera

5. Motor Drivers

6. Robot Arm Claw 

7. Bread Board and connecting Wires etc.

After connecting all the equipment will be integrated to implement a roboto as  Underground Sewage Crawler. This Robot is use for oppenig the underground sewage.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry TransportationOther Industries Others , Health Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies Others, Clean TechSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Clean Water and SanitationRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	69650
Arduino UNO kit	Equipment	1	4280	4280
Crawler Car	Equipment	1	16550	16550
Camera	Equipment	1	10020	10020
Servo Motor	Equipment	6	1600	9600
Motor Driver	Equipment	2	1600	3200
robot arm claw	Equipment	2	10000	20000
Thesis print and binding	Equipment	4	1500	6000