Abstract— Sewerage is a harsh environment which requires periodically inspection. The inspection should be done duo to the unanticipated problems that may occur in the sewer networks. Entrance of objects like roots, corrosion and deformation of pipe are some usual problems occur in the network. As a result, monitoring the pipe interior is necessary for managing the sewer system. Sewer inspection robots as a kind of mobile robots are specially developed to inspect the pipe interior. At first, the robot should move through the pipe and provide pictures and video from the inside of pipe. In addition, producing sensory data from the pipe interior would be very valuable. The progress of technology in the field of mechatronics provided more opportunities for improving the inspection robots capabilities. In this paper, an improved version of sewer inspection robot is developed. The main concept in the hardware development of the system in mechanical and electrical is considered from the beginning of the design. Further, through the developments in the software of the robot, the output of the system is more attractive for the waste water companies and produced a more acceptable product. Application of robot in live sewer networks show reasonable results and verifies the system application. Keywords— Inspection, Robot, Sewer. I. INTRODUCTION HE ability to monitor and evaluate the pipe’s interior is an important requirement of maintaining of pipelines. Visual confirmation is desired before performing corrective actions and/or expanding capital costs. Sewer pipelines in Iran are usually existed from 200 to 2000 mm in diameter for sewer transmission from houses to refineries. In the past, pipes were manufactured from concrete but recently the polyethylene type is more usual in the new networks. However, the material of the pipes affect the kind of problems occurred in the system. Some of the problems may happen in sewer network are: • Entrance of roots of trees and lateral branches to the pipe • Settling of materials in a single place which cause obstruction • Corrosion of pipe surface • Distraction of pipes in joints • Deformation of pipe and change of cross section • Unwanted variation of pipe slope Alireza. Hadi is with the Islamic Azad University-Roudehen Branch, Roudehen, Tehran, Iran (phone: +98221-5729405; fax: +98221-5727665; e- mail: arhadi@riau.ac.ir). Gholamhossein. Mohammadi is with the Kavosh Mechanizeh Fanavar Co., Tehran, Iran (e-mail: mohammadi@kavoshmech.com). The mentioned problems increase the motivation for inspecting the interior of the sewer pipelines periodically. In addition to this, existence of small diameter pipes, unsuitable environment of sewer pipes and the necessity of inspecting live networks, force the application of a robot for this mission. In this way no human need to exist in pipes and the monitoring of the pipes status being done through a remotely controllable mobile robot. Furthermore, the classic robots conclude some sensors for better evaluating the pipe status. However, the technology progress provided more facilities for improving the inspection capabilities. This work deals with the design and prototyping of an apparatus that traverses through pipes for inspection, cleaning and/or examining of the piping system known as a pipe crawler in the industry. Pipe crawlers are frequently used to deploy monitoring equipments including sensors and/or cameras to monitor the pipe integrity and to help diagnose needed repair or maintenance [1–6]. Typically, such devices include testing probes, sensors, or cameras. While existing pipe crawlers are advantageous in that they allow for the in situ cleaning, examination, inspection of piping systems, each has its own difficulties passing through pipes. The simple mechanisms permit movement only in horizontal pipes [1–2]. Although they have the difficulty of producing necessary friction force to continue moving in far distances to pull extensive lengths of their power and signal cables, the traversing mechanism is are much simpler. However, many original locomotion concepts have been proposed to solve the numerous technical difficulties associated with the changes in the pipe diameters, presence of vertical pipes, various elbow and providing the necessary energy supply [4–6]. Walking mechanisms offer complex discrete, rather than simple continuous pipe wall contact for movement. Consequently these mechanisms have not been used in the pipe inspection industry. Based on the authors’ experiences [7] and utilizing a mechatronics approach, in this paper, an inspection robot is proposed which has the ability of traversing through horizontal sewer pipes. The robot is a four wheel drive mobile robot and is remotely controllable by an operator. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the design of the system hardware. Although designing the mechanical and electrical parts of the system is done simultaneously through the mechatronics approach, the mechanical and electrical designs are presented in two sub- sections. Section 3 describes the software of the system. Section 4 introduces the experiments done with the developed Developing a Sewer Inspection Robot through a Mechatronics Approach Alireza. Hadi, Gholamhossein. Mohammadi T International Conference on Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering (ICMAME'2012) Jan. 7-8, 2012 Dubai 187