Development of quadruped robot for inspection of underground pipelines in nuclear power plants

Abstract

Structural integrity of seawater pipelines in nuclear power plants is a very important issue. In accordance with the operating technical guidelines, the human operators directly enter the pipe and inspect it at every maintenance test. However, in this regard, safety issues such as narrow space and harmful gas are emerging every year. In response to these needs, a quadruped robot that can inspect underground pipes and assist workers has been developed. The robot has an articulated robotic arm that can receive an impact sound of hammering a pipe wall to test pipe integrity. The state of the pipe was examined using a Convolutional Neural Network algorithm. On the other hand, moving in a plumbing environment requires stable walking ability. To determine the gait sequence, a hierarchical gait controller is proposed. The hybrid controller, which consists of joint impedance and torque control, calculated from Model Predictive Control, can switch the gait modes comparing the reference and the current foot contact condition at each control cycle.