In-pipe robots are promising solutions for condition assessment, leak detection, water quality monitoring in a variety of other tasks in pipeline networks. Smart navigation is an extremely challenging task for these robots as a result of highly uncertain and disturbing environment for operation. Wireless communication to control these robots during operation is not feasible if the pipe material is metal since the radio signals are destroyed in the pipe environment, and hence, this challenge is still unsolved. In this paper, we introduce a method for smart navigation for our previously designed in-pipe robot [1] based on particle filtering and a two-phase motion controller. The robot is given the map of the operation path with a novel approach and the particle filtering determines the straight and non-straight configurations of the pipeline. In the straight paths, the robot follows a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) based controller that stabilizes the robot and tracks a desired velocity. In non-straight paths, the robot follows the trajectory that a motion trajectory generator block plans for the robot. The proposed method is a promising solution for smart navigation without the need for wireless communication and capable of inspecting long distances in water distribution systems.

中文翻译：

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多相运动控制和粒子滤波的管道机器人智能导航

管道机器人是用于管道网络中各种其他任务的状态评估，泄漏检测，水质监测的有前途的解决方案。由于高度不确定和令人不安的操作环境，对于这些机器人而言，智能导航是一项极具挑战性的任务。如果管道材料是金属，则在操作过程中控制这些机器人的无线通信是不可行的，因为无线电信号在管道环境中被破坏，因此，这一挑战仍未解决。在本文中，我们为先前设计的管道机器人[1]介绍了一种基于粒子滤波和两相运动控制器的智能导航方法。使用新颖的方法为机器人提供了操作路径图，并且粒子过滤确定了管道的直线和非直线配置。在直线路径中，机器人遵循线性二次调节器（LQR）和基于比例积分微分（PID）的控制器，该控制器可使机器人稳定并跟踪所需速度。在非直线路径中，机器人遵循运动轨迹生成器块为机器人规划的轨迹。所提出的方法是用于智能导航的有前途的解决方案，不需要无线通信并且能够检查供水系统中的长距离。