A.I. Komissarov, К. Е. Byakov, V.B. Kholodenko, О. А. Kornienko
2021-12-24
Abstract ▼
The ability of a multi-unit in-pipe robot to drive through curved sections of a pipeline is an important indicator of its capability to move through the pipeline. At the design stage, this indicator cannot be verified without mathematical simulation of the robot spatial movement and interaction of its running gear with the pipeline. The objective of this work is to create a dynamical model for evaluation of the two-link in-pipe wheeled robot capability to drive through a pipeline. The model was developed in the Universal Mechanism multibody system simulation program with the use of its standard elements of the mechanical system modeling and a special-purpose wheel – pipeline contact model developed by the authors. The wheel – pipeline contact model was created in MATLAB and compiled as a DLL. The developed multibody model was verified by the robot behavior during its motion through a bent section of the pipeline and by the time histories of the indicators of its capability to drive through the pipeline. Two directions of the pipeline bend were studied. The minimum distance from the extruding electric motors of the robot actuators to the internal surface of the pipeline has been offered as an indicator of the robot ability to move through the pipeline. The analysis of the simulation results has proved the adequacy of the model behavior and showed that the developed multibody model can be used for the evaluation of the robot capability to move through the pipeline at the early design stages before fabrication of its prototype.
