Two-module robotic pipe inspection system with EMATs

This work introduces a two-module robotic pipe inspection system with ultrasonic NDE device to evaluatethe integrity of pipe structures. The proposed robotic platform has high mobility. Ttwo module mobile robot platformovercomespipe obstacle structures such as elbow, or T-branch joints by cooperative maneuvers. Also, it can climb up the straight pipeline at a fast speed due to the wheel driven mechanism. For inspection of pipe structure, SH-waves generated by EMAT areapplied with additional signal processing methods. A wavelet transform is implemented to extract a meaningful and specific signal from the superposed SH-wave signals.Intensity ratio which is normalized the defect signals intensity by the maximum intensity of directly transmitted signals in the wavelet transforms spectrum is applied to evaluate defects quantitatively.Itis experimentally verified that therobotic ultrasonic inspection system with EMAT is capable ofnon-destructive inspection and evaluation ofdefects in pipe structure successfully by applying signal processing method based on wavelet transform.