Development of mobile minirobots for in pipe inspection tasks

The possibilities to use a miniaturized robotic system for inspection, exploration and maintenance of the pipes are highlighted. In this paper, the authors’ contributionin this field is discussed. Two in-pipe minirobots developed by the authors are described. The efforts are focused on the in-pipe mobility and corresponding actuationsystems. Several functional characteristics (e.g. the maximum /minimum inner pipe diameter) are given.