ErixsonMobil Corporation is a multinational gas pipeline company which is planning to
conduct its routine annual or bi-annual inspection of one of their gas pipelines to ensure there
are no gas leaks. Most of their pipelines are nearing the end of their theoretical service life and are susceptible to cracks and other defects and need to be more frequently inspected to identify and repair them at the earliest in order to prevent catastrophic failures in the future.
In traditional pipeline inspection setups, it would have either required many personnel
digging up the ground, costing a lot both in terms of labor and time or it would have used a
tele-operated system, where at least one or more operators sit behind computers for hours,
manually controlling the system to traverse inside the pipeline and identify the defects.
Now RoboSpect comes into the picture and presents ErixsonMobil with a much more
simplified and cost-effective solution. One of RoboSpect’s robots is simply placed at the
entrance of the pipeline, eliminating the need to dig up the ground. The robot is then given a
start command and will begin to autonomously explore, localize and build a 3D model of the
pipe. As the inspection is being done, employees at ErixsonMobil obtain the data of the pipeline and the inspection algorithm automatically detects and stores the precise location of the pipeline defects.
Along with this, as the robot traverses inside the pipeline, it also simultaneously builds a
pipeline map. A couple of hours pass by, and our robot continues to map and identify defects,
without requiring any human intervention. Once our robot finishes traversing inside the pipeline, it will either return to the starting destination on its own or can be retrieved from a
different location, based on ErixsonMobil’s preference.
Meanwhile, back in the office at ErixsonMobil, staff are delighted with the efficiency and
accuracy of our robot. They can access the camera feed returned by the robot, and also have
the precise location of the defects detected and now only need to access those locations for
repair work, saving ErixsonMobil time and money both in terms of preventing catastrophic
failures and labor.
As an additional feature, RoboSpect’s system is also able to analyze the historical data and
predict future possible locations of pipeline defects which ErixsonMobil is pleased to have
access to, as it helps them in scheduling future repair works, calculating downtime and
anticipating costs.