IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 05 Issue: 04 | Apr-2016, Available @ http://ijret.esatjournals.org 180 DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN SMS-BASED ROBOTIC SYSTEM FOR HOLE- DETECTION IN SURFACE PIPES USING GPS/GPRS/GSM TECHNOLOGY Ezeofor J. Chukwunazo 1 , Georgewill M. Onengiye 2 1 Lecturer, Electronic & Computer Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria 2 Rector, Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic Bori, Rivers State, Nigeria Abstract This paper presents the design and implementation of SMS-based robotic system for hole-detection in surface pipes using GPS/GPRS/GSM technology. In industries today, surface pipelines are used to transport fluids; some of these pipelines have joints which are welded together. In a situation whereby the welding is not perfectly done, leakage of fluids may occur, leading to product loss and downtime. Therefore to checkmate this issue of pipeline leakage, an SMS-based robotic system is designed to inspect the pipelines for holes and if light is sensed in the pipelines through the sensing devices on the robot, a Short Message Service (SMS) indicating the location where the light was sensed is sent to the operator’s phone with help of the SIM 900 GPS/GPRS/GSM MODEM installed on the robot hardware system. The robot system is designed with an Arduino Uno Micro- Controller and some sensing devices installed on it. The system is programmed using embedded C language. After the implementation, the robot system was tested which could detect holes in surface pipelines and sent short message to the personnel’s mobile phone. Keywords: Arduino Uno Board, GPS/GPRS/GSM technology, Robotics, SIM900 Modem, Sensors --------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION Robotics is one of the fastest growing Engineering fields of study today. Robots are designed to remove the human factor from labor intensive or dangerous work and also to act in inaccessible environment. The uses of robots are more common today than ever before and it is no longer exclusively used by the heavy production industries. There are many areas where robots can be used to replace humans; among them are monitoring of oil pipelines for leakages which are one of the most challenging areas in Oil & Gas sectors. Over billions of places, from huge plants to an individual houses, robots are employed by people to carry out vast services. But, many troubles like aging, corrosion, erosion, cracks and physical damages from third parties, have occurred in pipelines. Therefore, maintenance of pipelines is essential in order to keep them functional, and moreover the continuation cost for these activities are being increased. Autonomous robots can act on their own, independent of any controller. Autonomous pipe inspection method should be introduced for holes detection in surface pipes in order to improve the inspection efficiency by reducing the time and manpower in the inspection process. The in-pipe detection of holes in surface pipes is relevant for improving security and efficiency in industrial plants. These specific operations such as inspection, maintenance, cleaning etc. are expensive. The application of the robots in pipeline inspection and monitoring appear to be one of the most attractive solutions. Due to the cost of advanced pipeline inspection techniques, less expensive forms of non-destructive evaluation are often desired. Visual inspection of surface pipes is currently one of the most commonly used non-destructive evaluation techniques because it is relatively inexpensive as it requires minimal, if any, use of instruments or equipment and it can be accomplished without data processing. However, a large number of structural deficiencies have surface indicators (e.g. Corrosion, concrete deterioration etc.). Aside from a limited range of detection, visual inspection does have further drawbacks. It is extremely dependent on the inspector‟s training, visual acuity, and state-of-mind. Also external factors such as light intensity, structure complexity, and structure accessibility play a role in determining the effectiveness of visual inspection. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The first reference to the word „robot‟ appeared in a play opening in London. The play, written by Czechoslorakian Karl Capek introduced the word 'robot' from the Czech 'robota' (Webster, 1993) and (Karl, 1921). The first programmable robot was designed by George Devol, and named it Universal Automation. He later shortened this to unimation which became the name of the first robot company (George, 1954). Richard Hohn