Blockage busting robot

We’ve already seen an impressive machine for clearing out above ground gutterage but what about those underground pipes that need to be both cleaned and inspected without all the hassle of digging them up?

Currently pipes for water, sewerage and oil use a device called a “pig” which when inserted is driven forward by pressure coming from the substance building behind it, taking pictures along its journey and conducting tests.

This rather basic looking bristled robot could provide the answer for “unpiggable” pipes however, ones that are blocked,damaged,too narrow or twisted to use regular pigs, these need something with more oopfh!

With the bristles able to bend and adjust to changes in the pipeline it has made good progress so far in tests, coming a cropper just once in 20 runs when confronted with a completely blocks pathway.

It is sent to task with a tether attached for feeding back data and carrying the air pressure to the pneumatic controlled cylinders between the bristled areasWhen one of these cylinders tries to push the body pieces apart, the back bit can’t shift because of resistance from the backward-facing bristles and so the other body is pushed forward and when the cylinder pulls together the front brush digs in and the back bristled body pulls forward.

Almost unstoppable!

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