Pipeline detection robot

Abstract

The utility model relates to the technical field of pipeline detection, and discloses a pipeline detection robot, which comprises a pipeline, a moving mechanism and a data acquisition module, a signal receiving module is fixedly mounted at the top of the inner wall of the pipeline, and a mounting box is fixedly mounted at the top of the moving mechanism. A box cover is fixedly mounted at the top of the mounting box through a fastener, an electric sliding table with the bottom attached to the top of the box cover is arranged at the top of the mounting box, and a hydraulic mechanical arm is fixedly mounted at the top of the movable end of the electric sliding table. According to the utility model, through the first laser radar and the second laser radar which are horizontally and vertically arranged, point clouds of the internal structure of the pipeline are respectively collected from the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, point cloud scanning of a full field angle of the internal structure of the pipeline can be realized, and a more accurate three-dimensional pipeline model can be obtained through the calculation module. When the accurate three-dimensional pipeline model is used for evaluating the safety state of the pipeline, the reliability can be improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of pipeline detection, in particular to a pipeline detection robot. Background Art

[0002] Pipelines are important and indispensable equipment in modern industrial production. Their safe operation is closely related to the production economy of the enterprise. Since pipelines are buried deep underground, accidents such as pipeline leakage, corrosion, and rupture may lead to unpredictable consequences, causing serious economic losses and safety hazards. Traditional pipeline inspection and maintenance often require a lot of manpower and material support, are inefficient, and have certain safety hazards. The inspection data obtained are often too discrete, making it difficult to fully reflect the overall characteristics of the pipeline as well as disease and defect information.

[0003] The existing pipeline inspection robots are highly dependent on video detection, but the camera position is fixed. When encountering pipeline defects, the camera cannot be moved to focus on the defects, and the onboard radar cannot completely obtain the point cloud of the full field of view inside the pipeline, resulting in the current pipeline inspection robot model reconstruction accuracy is not high enough. In addition, due to the poor signal inside the pipeline, some pipeline inspection robots transmit information to the outside of the pipeline through connecting cables, which limits the robot's travel distance. Therefore, a pipeline inspection robot is proposed to solve the above problems. Utility Model Content

[0004] 1. Technical issues to be resolved

[0005] In view of the deficiencies in the prior art, the utility model provides a pipeline inspection robot, which has the advantages of being able to efficiently obtain data information and being suitable for large-scale scanning and mapping work. It solves the problem that the existing pipeline inspection robots are highly dependent on video inspection, but the camera position is fixed. When encountering pipeline defects, the camera cannot be moved to focus on the defects, and the onboard radar cannot completely obtain the point cloud of the full field of view inside the pipeline, resulting in the current pipeline inspection robot model reconstruction accuracy is not high enough. In addition, during pipeline inspection in the industry, due to the poor signal inside the pipeline, some pipeline inspection robots transmit information to the outside of the pipeline through connecting cables, which limits the robot's travel distance.

[0006] (II) Technical solution

[0007] The utility model solves the above technical problems with the following technical solutions: a pipeline inspection robot, comprising a pipeline, a mobile mechanism and a data acquisition module, a signal receiving module is fixedly installed on the top of the inner wall of the pipeline, a mounting box is fixedly installed on the top of the mobile mechanism, a box cover is fixedly installed on the top of the mounting box through fasteners, an electric slide is arranged on the top of the mounting box, a hydraulic mechanical arm is fixedly installed on the top of the mobile end of the electric slide, a signal transmitter is fixedly installed on the top of the box cover, a mileage data collection module is arranged inside the mobile mechanism, and a power supply calculation module is fixedly installed on the bottom of the inner wall of the mounting box;

[0008] The data acquisition module includes a first laser radar, a second laser radar, a panoramic camera, and an inertial measurement unit. The first laser radar is horizontally fixedly installed on the left side of the box cover, the second laser radar is vertically fixedly installed on the top of the box cover, the panoramic camera is fixedly installed on the left side of the hydraulic mechanical arm, and the inertial measurement unit is fixedly installed inside the panoramic camera.

[0009] As a preferred technical solution, the mobile mechanism includes a mounting plate, wheels and a motor. The number of the wheels is four and they are distributed in a rectangular shape on the outside of the mounting plate. The number of the motors is four and the output shafts are fixedly connected to the bearings of the four wheels respectively. The motor is fixedly installed inside the mounting plate.

[0010] As a preferred technical solution, the mileage data collection module includes a first wheel encoder and a second wheel encoder. The number of the mileage data collection modules is two and they are symmetrically distributed on the left and right. The two first wheel encoders are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two front wheels, and the two second wheel encoders are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two rear wheels.

[0011] As a preferred technical solution, the power supply computing module includes a power supply and an onboard computer, both of which are fixedly installed on the bottom of the inner wall of the installation box, and the onboard computer is located at the rear side of the power supply.

[0012] As a preferred technical solution, support blocks are fixedly installed on both the front and rear sides of the installation box, and the bottom of the electric slide is fixedly connected to the tops of the two support blocks respectively.

[0013] As a preferred technical solution, the mounting plate is made of lightweight aluminum alloy, and the panoramic camera is provided with an illumination light source.

[0014] (III) Beneficial effects

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the utility model are as follows:

[0016] 1. The utility model collects point clouds of the internal structure of the pipeline from the horizontal direction and the vertical direction respectively through the first laser radar and the second laser radar arranged horizontally and vertically, so as to realize point cloud scanning of the internal structure of the pipeline with a full field of view. A more accurate three-dimensional pipeline model can be obtained through the calculation module. The accurate three-dimensional pipeline model is used to evaluate the safety status of the pipeline, which can improve reliability.

[0017] 2. The utility model realizes multi-angle and multi-directional flexible and focused shooting of underground pipeline defects through the cooperation of a multi-degree-of-freedom hydraulic mechanical arm mounted on an electric slide and a panoramic camera, and under the action of a moving mechanism.

[0018] 3. When positioning the robot trajectory, the utility model collects the mileage data of the wheels on the plane through the first wheel encoder and the second wheel encoder set on the wheels on both sides of the mobile mechanism, and calibrates the data collected by the inertial measurement unit to reduce the cumulative error of the inertial measurement unit and further improve the detection accuracy.

[0019] 4. The utility model receives the internal pipeline data, the real-time trajectory of the robot, and the three-dimensionally reconstructed internal structure of the pipeline collected by the robot data acquisition module in the pipeline through the signal receiving module arranged at the pipeline inlet. Compared with the method of transmitting information to the outside of the pipeline through connecting cables, the travel distance of the robot in the utility model is not limited, it can adapt to a variety of complex pipeline environments, and can improve the detection efficiency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0021] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the three-dimensional structure of the utility model;

[0022] Figure 2 This is a three-dimensional structural schematic diagram of the utility model from another viewing angle;

[0023] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the installation box of the utility model;

[0024] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the mobile mechanism of the utility model.

[0025] In the figure: 1. pipeline; 2. moving mechanism; 201. mounting plate; 202. wheel; 203. motor; 3. data acquisition module; 301. first laser radar; 302. second laser radar; 303. panoramic camera; 304. inertial measurement unit; 4. signal receiving module; 5. mounting box; 6. box cover; 7. electric slide; 8. hydraulic mechanical arm; 9. signal transmitter; 10. mileage data collection module; 1001. first wheel encoder; 1002. second wheel encoder; 11. power supply calculation module; 1101. power supply; 1102. onboard computer; 12. support block. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the utility model to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the utility model. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the utility model, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the utility model, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the utility model.

[0027] In the embodiment, Figure 1-4 A pipeline inspection robot is provided. The utility model comprises a pipeline 1, a mobile mechanism 2 and a data acquisition module 3. A signal receiving module 4 is fixedly installed on the top of the inner wall of the pipeline 1. A mounting box 5 is fixedly installed on the top of the mobile mechanism 2. A box cover 6 is fixedly installed on the top of the mounting box 5 through fasteners. An electric slide 7 is arranged on the top of the mounting box 5, and the bottom of the electric slide 7 is fitted with the top of the box cover 6. A hydraulic mechanical arm 8 is fixedly installed on the top of the mobile end of the electric slide 7. A signal transmitter 9 is fixedly installed on the top of the box cover 6. A mileage data collection module 10 is arranged inside the mobile mechanism 2. A power supply calculation module 11 is fixedly installed on the bottom of the inner wall of the mounting box 5.

[0028] The data acquisition module 3 includes a first laser radar 301, a second laser radar 302, a panoramic camera 303, and an inertial measurement unit 304. The first laser radar 301 is horizontally fixedly installed on the left side of the box cover 6, the second laser radar 302 is vertically fixedly installed on the top of the box cover 6, the panoramic camera 303 is fixedly installed on the left side of the hydraulic mechanical arm 8, and the inertial measurement unit 304 is fixedly installed inside the panoramic camera 303.

[0029] The first laser radar 301 and the second laser radar 302 have the functions of real-time data transmission and reception, 360-degree full coverage, 3D distance measurement and calibrated reflection measurement; the first laser radar 301 and the second laser radar 302 have an effective measurement range of 100 meters, support 16 channels, 300,000 points / second, 360° horizontal field of view and 30° vertical field of view, the panoramic camera 303 adopts 1 / 2.8 CMOS image sensor, a small-sized stacked 4K CMOS image sensor, converts light into electrical signals, and outputs it as a digital image, 200W pixels; the field of view is 180°*180, the signal receiving module 4 is used to receive the internal data of the pipeline collected by the robot data acquisition module 3 in the pipeline 1, the real-time trajectory of the robot, and the three-dimensionally reconstructed internal structure of the pipeline, wherein the signal receiving module 4 can be UWB (Ultra-Wi deband): UWB technology can be used for high-precision indoor and outdoor positioning. It has a two-way communication function, allowing data exchange between devices and beacons for location tracking and communication. It has good performance in penetrating materials, can measure the distance from the device to the beacon and support data transmission and sending and receiving instructions. The signal received by the signal receiving module 4 is transmitted to the background control center and integrated and saved in ROS for subsequent processing.

[0030] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mobile mechanism 2 includes a mounting plate 201, wheels 202 and a motor 203. The number of wheels 202 is four and they are distributed in a rectangular shape on the outside of the mounting plate 201. The number of motors 203 is four and the output shafts are fixedly connected to the bearings of the four wheels 202 respectively. The motor 203 is fixedly installed inside the mounting plate 201.

[0031] The four motors 203 respectively drive the four wheels 202 to rotate, thereby moving the entire robot.

[0032] As a preference of this embodiment, the mileage data collection module 10 includes a first wheel encoder 1001 and a second wheel encoder 1002. The number of mileage data collection modules 10 is two and they are symmetrically distributed on the left and right. The two first wheel encoders 1001 are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two front wheels 202, and the two second wheel encoders 1002 are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two rear wheels 202.

[0033] Through the cooperation of the first wheel encoder 1001 and the second wheel encoder 1002, the mileage data of the wheels on the plane is generated according to the diameters and the number of rotations of the wheels on both sides.

[0034] As a preferred embodiment of this embodiment, the power supply computing module 11 includes a power supply 1101 and an onboard computer 1102 . The power supply 1101 and the onboard computer 1102 are both fixedly installed at the bottom of the inner wall of the installation box 5 , and the onboard computer 1102 is located at the rear side of the power supply 1101 .

[0035] The onboard computer 1102 is used to receive the internal data of the pipeline 1 collected by the data collection module 3, and to perform real-time positioning of the robot according to the received internal data of the pipeline 1, and to realize the three-dimensional reconstruction of the internal structure of the pipeline 1; the onboard computer 1102 is used to obtain the real-time trajectory of the robot during the operation process according to the data collected by the panoramic camera 303 and the inertial measurement unit 304, and to realize the real-time positioning of the robot;

[0036] The onboard computer 1102 is also used to fuse the point cloud of the internal structure of the pipeline 1 collected horizontally by the first laser radar 301 and the point cloud of the internal structure of the pipeline collected vertically by the second laser radar 302 to obtain a point cloud model of the pipeline 1, and to realize three-dimensional reconstruction of the internal structure of the pipeline according to the point cloud model of the pipeline 1 and the real-time trajectory of the robot;

[0037] And the power supply 1101 supplies power to the equipment during the operation of the robot through the power management board. The power management system provides 5V, 12V and 24V power supply interfaces to meet the needs of different sensors. The onboard computer has various interfaces for integrating the data of various sensors;

[0038] The onboard computer 1102 is used to obtain the trajectory of the robot during operation through the synchronous localization and mapping algorithm (SLAM) according to the data collected by the panoramic camera 303 and the inertial measurement unit 304, so as to realize the real-time positioning of the robot; in other embodiments, other existing positioning algorithms can also be used, such as the technology of estimating the position and direction of the device through inertial sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes built into the device. This algorithm is usually called an inertial navigation system (INS). By measuring the linear acceleration and angular velocity of the device, the displacement and rotation of the device can be estimated in a short time, thereby realizing positioning;

[0039] The onboard computer 1102 fuses the point cloud collected from the horizontal direction with the point cloud collected from the vertical direction; a commonly used algorithm is "Multi-Layer LIDAR Data Fusion" or "Multi-LayerLIDAR Fusion", the core idea of ​​which is to fuse multiple lidar layer data from different directions into a unified three-dimensional point cloud to generate a more comprehensive and accurate environment model, which is completed through a series of steps, including data preprocessing, coordinate transformation, data alignment, point cloud fusion, denoising and filtering operations;

[0040] According to the point cloud model of pipeline 1 and the trajectory of the robot during operation, RGB-D SLAM is an algorithm for 3D reconstruction and environment modeling. It combines point cloud data (depth information) and camera images (color information), while taking into account the trajectory of the robot, to generate a comprehensive 3D model to achieve 3D reconstruction of the internal structure of pipeline 1. Other existing 3D reconstruction algorithms can also be used. Deep learning has been widely used in 3D reconstruction of image and point cloud fusion. For example, deep learning models such as PointNet, PointNet++ and DeepVCP are used for point cloud processing and visual measurement. These models can be combined with image processing technology to achieve efficient 3D reconstruction.

[0041] The onboard computer 1102 generates the mileage data of the wheel 202 on the plane, and simultaneously records the mileage data of the wheel encoder and the position and attitude data of the inertial navigation system (inertial measurement unit 3, IMU) to ensure the synchronization of the timestamp. A linear transformation is found through least squares fitting to map the mileage data of the wheel encoder to the position data of the inertial navigation system. The real-time feedback calibration continuously calibrates the wheel encoder data to adapt to the accumulation of errors. The Kalman filter is used to fuse the data of the wheel encoder and the inertial navigation system to obtain accurate mileage data, and the data collected by the inertial measurement unit 3 is calibrated.

[0042] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, support blocks 12 are fixedly installed on both the front and rear sides of the installation box 5 , and the bottom of the electric slide 7 is fixedly connected to the tops of the two support blocks 12 , respectively.

[0043] A driving plate is provided inside the hydraulic mechanical arm 8, which is electrically connected to the electric slide 7 through the driving plate, so as to control the movement of the moving end of the electric slide 7. The driving plate can also control the extension and retraction of the hydraulic mechanical arm 8, so as to drive the movement of the panoramic camera 303.

[0044] As a preferred embodiment of this embodiment, the material of the mounting plate 201 is a lightweight aluminum alloy, and an illumination light source is provided on the panoramic camera 303 .

[0045] The panoramic camera 303 needs to be equipped with an illumination light source. There are two light strips around the side. The maximum power of a single strip is 4W, and the brightness is adjustable.

[0046] Working principle: The robot is driven into the interior of the pipeline 1 through the moving mechanism 2, and a three-dimensional model of the interior of the pipeline 1 is established under the action of the first laser radar 301, the second laser radar 302 and the onboard computer 1102, and the signal is sent through the signal transmitter 9 and received by the signal receiving module 4 for subsequent processing. The real-time trajectory of the robot is transmitted under the action of the panoramic camera 303, the inertial measurement unit 304, the first wheel encoder 1001, the second wheel encoder 1002 and the onboard computer 1102, thereby enhancing the accuracy of the detection of the interior of the pipeline 1 and ensuring the transmission of information.

[0047] It should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the sentence "comprise a ..." do not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the elements.

[0048] Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the present invention, and that the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A pipeline inspection robot, comprising a pipeline (1), a moving mechanism (2) and a data acquisition module (3), characterized in that: A signal receiving module (4) is fixedly installed on the top of the inner wall of the pipeline (1); a mounting box (5) is fixedly installed on the top of the mobile mechanism (2); a box cover (6) is fixedly installed on the top of the mounting box (5) via fasteners; an electric slide (7) is arranged on the top of the mounting box (5) with its bottom in contact with the top of the box cover (6); a hydraulic mechanical arm (8) is fixedly installed on the top of the moving end of the electric slide (7); a signal transmitter (9) is fixedly installed on the top of the box cover (6); a mileage data collection module (10) is arranged inside the mobile mechanism (2); and a power supply calculation module (11) is fixedly installed on the bottom of the inner wall of the mounting box (5); The data acquisition module (3) comprises a first laser radar (301), a second laser radar (302), a panoramic camera (303), and an inertial measurement unit (304); the first laser radar (301) is fixedly installed horizontally on the left side of the box cover (6); the second laser radar (302) is fixedly installed vertically on the top of the box cover (6); the panoramic camera (303) is fixedly installed on the left side of the hydraulic mechanical arm (8); and the inertial measurement unit (304) is fixedly installed inside the panoramic camera (303).

2. A pipeline inspection robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mobile mechanism (2) comprises a mounting plate (201), wheels (202) and a motor (203); the number of the wheels (202) is four and they are distributed in a rectangular shape on the outside of the mounting plate (201); the number of the motors (203) is four and the output shafts are respectively fixedly connected to the bearings of the four wheels (202); and the motors (203) are fixedly mounted inside the mounting plate (201).

3. A pipeline inspection robot according to claim 2, characterized in that: The mileage data collection module (10) comprises a first wheel encoder (1001) and a second wheel encoder (1002). The number of the mileage data collection modules (10) is two and they are symmetrically distributed. The two first wheel encoders (1001) are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two front wheels (202), and the two second wheel encoders (1002) are respectively fixedly connected to the outer sides of the bearings of the two rear wheels (202).

4. A pipeline inspection robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: The power supply computing module (11) comprises a power supply (1101) and an onboard computer (1102); the power supply (1101) and the onboard computer (1102) are both fixedly mounted on the bottom of the inner wall of the installation box (5); and the onboard computer (1102) is located at the rear side of the power supply (1101).

5. The pipeline inspection robot according to claim 1, characterized in that: Support blocks (12) are fixedly installed on both the front and rear sides of the installation box (5), and the bottom of the electric slide (7) is fixedly connected to the tops of the two support blocks (12) respectively.

6. The pipeline inspection robot according to claim 3, characterized in that: The mounting plate (201) is made of a lightweight aluminum alloy, and the panoramic camera (303) is provided with an illumination light source.

Images