The Wireless Robotic Gas Worker

By Roland Piquepaille

Assessing and repairing old gas pipes is difficult and costly, representing about $650 million per year in the U.S. alone. So robotic researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have developed a remote-controlled, untethered, wireless prototype crawling robot, designed to inspect underground gas mains. This robot carries the trademarked name "Explorer" (How original! There are about a thousand trademarks in the U.S. which include "explorer" in their names!) It looks like a link sausage with front- and rear-fisheye cameras and lights and is remotely controlled by an operator sitting in a truck. In a world's premiere, this robot has been successfully used to inspect gas pipes dating from 1890 in Yonkers, N.Y. If you want to purchase one, it will cost you between $50K and $75K providing you buy at least ten units.

Here is the beginning of the CMU news release.

Carnegie Mellon University robotics researchers, in conjunction with the Northeast Gas Association (NGA), the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA, have developed a remote-controlled, untethered, wireless prototype crawling robot, designed to inspect underground gas mains.

Consolidated Edison Co. of New York (Con Edison) recently supported the first deployment of the robot in Yonkers, N.Y., where it successfully inspected hundreds of feet of 8-inch-diameter, live, cast-iron gas main sections originally installed in 1890.

Now, let's look like at the robot itself.

The robot, known as Explorer