Development of an Inspection Platform and a Suite of Sensors for Assessing Corrosion and Mechanical Damage on Unpiggable Transmission Mains
Final Report October 2002 – March 2004
Dr. George C. Vradis Consultant to the RD&D Director NYSEARCH / Northeast Gas Association William Leary Project Manager Foster-Miller, Inc.
March 2004 DOE Award Number: DE-FC26-02NT41645
Northeast Gas Association 1515 Broadway, 43rd Floor New York, NY 10036 Foster-Miller, Inc. 350 Second Ave. Waltham, MA 02451-1196
DISCLAIMER
"This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by he United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Unites States Government or any agency thereof."
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Summary The National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US Department of Energy (under Award DE-FC26-02NT41645) and the NYSEARCH Committee of the Northeast Gas Association (previous the New York Gas Group), have sponsored research to develop a robotic pipeline inspection system capable of navigation through the typical physical and operational obstacles that make transmission and distribution pipelines unpiggable. The research contractors, FosterMiller and GE Oil & Gas (PII North America) have performed an engineering study and developed a conceptual design that meets all the requirements for navigating and inspecting unpiggable transmission pipelines. Based on Foster-Miller's previous efforts developing the Pipe Mouse robot, the RoboScan inspection robot (Figure ES-1) meets the navigational and physical challenges of unpiggable pipelines through an innovative modular platform design, segmented MFL inspection modules and improvements to the inter-module coupling design.

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