Application of MEMS IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) in pipeline inspection robots

Application of MEMS IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) in pipeline inspection robots

 

Pipelines are like the "underground blood vessels" of a city, making their safety inspections crucial. Traditional manual inspections are inefficient, risky, and prone to blind spots. Unmanned inspection robots are the mainstream development direction. However, they face a fundamental challenge: how to achieve long-term, high-precision autonomous positioning and navigation in dark environments, such as those buried deep underground or underwater, where GNSS signals are completely lost?

 

Main challenges:

1.     GNSS-denied environments: Reinforced concrete pipe corridors, underwater or buried pipelines completely block satellite signals.

2.     Extremely harsh environment: Narrow space inside the tube, highly repetitive structure, insufficient or no light.

3.     Complex motion patterns: Climbing, turning, crossing obstacles and other complex motions require extremely high posture calculation

4.     Long-time and long-distance work: Inspection tasks are long in time and long in distance, and positioning errors need to be strictly controlled.

 

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) can excellently solve these issues.

Under such harsh conditions, inertial sensors that achieve continuous navigation by sensing their own motion changes without relying on any external signals have become an indispensable core sensor for inspection robots.

 

Why are IMUs irreplaceable?

• Fully autonomous: Independent of external signals, they are the only sensor capable of providing continuous navigation information within closed pipelines.

 

• High-frequency output: Provides high-frequency motion data, far exceeding other sensors.

 

• Full attitude perception: Simultaneously provides complete information on position, velocity, and attitude (roll, pitch, and heading).

 

• Environmental immunity: Unaffected by environmental factors such as light, fog, and pipe material.

 

What are the key factors in selecting a pipeline robot?

 

• Accuracy level: Based on the accuracy level of the IMU, industrial-grade IMUs are only suitable for short-range pipeline inspections; tactical-grade IMUs offer higher accuracy and are more suitable for pipeline inspections.

 

• Environmental adaptability: Pipeline environments are complex, subject to large temperature fluctuations, and subject to harsh environmental interference such as dust, humidity, and vibration, placing higher demands on the IMU's environmental adaptability.

 

• Fusion compatibility: When using an IMU, it is often integrated with SLAM for mutual calibration and enhanced product reliability.

 

Choosing the right MEMS IMU is no longer a technical detail, it's a strategic decision that determines the success or failure of a project. Our HITECH SENSORS HTS-IMU6 is in-situ compatible with the Honeywell HG4930 inertial measurement unit. With highly reliable data output and environmental adaptability, it provides pipeline inspection robots with stable, reliable, and continuous position sensing, truly enabling intelligent protection of underground pipelines. HTS-IMU6 Inertial Measurement Unit-China professional MEMS inertial measurement units supplier-Hitech Sensors Tech Co., Ltd