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NIWC Pacific Pipe Rider Robot Surrogate
NIWC Pacific Pipe Rider Robot Surrogate
Spring 2025 MAE 156B Project
Team 18: Subway Surfers!
University of California, San Diego
Jacobs School of Engineering
Sponsored by Dr. Kurt Talke, NIWC Pacific
What problem needs to be addressed?
One of the biggest challenges facing the United States' infrastructure is corrosion.
With approximately 3 million miles of underground piping susceptible to degradation, locating the source of leaks becomes a difficult and costly task.
To address this issue, Dr. Kurt Talke and his team are developing an innovative solution: the PipeRider robot. This wheeled device is designed to autonomously travel through pipes and pinpoint the exact location of corrosion, helping streamline maintenance and reduce infrastructure failures.
On the left is an simulation of how their PipeRider robot looks and functions as it travels through a pipe and turns in a Tee pipe. A big aspect of this robot is that it has to constantly maintain balance between the two wheels while moving. If one side turns too much, then the robot falls to the floor.Â
What are we tasked with?
Our goal is to develop a surrogate robot that replicates the PipeRider platform in terms of its electronics and sensors, with the key distinction of being manually controllable. By creating a manipulable version of the PipeRider robot, we enable the controls team to validate and calibrate their sensor data against a known set of controlled inputs. This approach allows for direct comparison between autonomous and manual operations, facilitating the development and refinement of their closed-loop control algorithms. Ultimately, this surrogate robot serves as a valuable testbed for debugging, system integration, and algorithm validation before full autonomy is implemented in the PipeRider system.
Our Solution
mae156 - HD 1080p.movOur solution is Subway Surfer, a surrogate robot designed as a test bench alternative to the PipeRider. It features encoder-equipped wheels and a spring-loaded linear sliding mechanism that maintains consistent contact and friction between the wheels and the bottom of the pipe. The platform includes designated mounting points for sensors and microcontrollers identical to those used by the PipeRider controls team, enabling seamless integration and testing. This setup allows for controlled experimentation and data collection to support the development of autonomous navigation and corrosion detection algorithms.
Test Results
Encoders are connected to each wheel to record the wheel rotation as it travels through the pipe. In order to accurately simulate the original PipeRider robot and its encoder readings, the wheels must maintain contact with the pipe as it changes orientation. Theoretical simulations are performed in three test scenarios: traveling past a tee, turning into an elbow, and turning into a tee. In each simulation, the robot is assumed to remain oriented vertically and the wheels remain on the same horizontal location of the pipe.
The image on the left is the averaged wheel distances of each encoder for every test scenario. Comparing the difference between the actual and experimental encoder data results in a maximum error of 7.7 cm when turning. Possible causes of this difference may be due to the omni-wheel slipping against the pipewall from loss of contact, or the omni-wheel translating laterally, causing the robot path to be different.
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