JPH04289084A - Piping robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To continuously make safe and complete inspection, repair and so on of an inner tube surface in the horizontal tube and the vertical tube of piping. CONSTITUTION:A link frame 11 where plural hinge parts are connected so as to be bent is pivotted at one end of a running carriage 1 provided with a fixed arm 4. The link frame 11 is supported by plural wheels 12 and can be slidingly extended in a running direction. An expanding/contracting leg 14 and a wire guide frame 8 provided with a guide which guides a wire rope 6 are connected at the other end of the link frame 11. A work head 15 provided with a rotating arm 18 which conducts wall surface work is hung with a wire 6 through the guide 9, and the work head 15 is raised and lowered inside a vertical tube through the work of wire winding or operation. The running carriage 1 can accommodate a part of the link frame 11 inside at the time of running inside a horizontal tube, and can run with the wire guide frame 8 and the work head 15 integratedly incorporated.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a piping work robot that cleans, inspects, repairs, etc. the inner surfaces of cooling water piping in thermal power plants.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, piping work robots have been developed that are equipped with a traveling device and can self-propel inside piping to perform cleaning, inspection, repair, etc. inside piping of thermal power plant equipment, etc. Most of these types of piping work robots are intended to run horizontally inside piping. For this reason, there are two types of robots: a self-propelled robot that suspends a trolley using a wire, etc. in order to move up and down vertical piping, and winds up the wire with a winch mounted on another trolley that is held fixed in a horizontal position. A robot that operates on a stand has been proposed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-78772). The configuration of this type of conventional pipe working robot will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 50 indicates a hanging robot, and a hanging wire rope 5 is connected from a hanging arm 52 mounted on a trolley 51 of this hanging robot 50.
3 is growing.

On the other hand, FIG. 5 shows a self-propelled working robot 60 suspended by a hanging robot 50. As shown in FIG. Here, a case will be described in which the hanging robot 50 suspends the self-propelled working robot 60 and causes it to travel from the horizontal pipe to the vertical pipe passing through an L-shaped elbow.

First, when the hanging robot 50 and the self-propelled working robot 60 reach near the elbow of the horizontal pipe, the hanging robot 50 extends the fall prevention arm 54 mounted on the trolley 51 and moves the rear of the horizontal pipe. An anchor is attached with a wire and its position is fixed. Next, the winch 55 is operated, the wire rope 53 is let out, and the self-propelled working robot 60 can be lowered at a predetermined speed. At this time, the self-propelled working robot 60 is also equipped with a steadying arm 61 having the same shape as the fall prevention arm 54, so that the working robot 60 that ascends and descends can run stably.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned piping work robot, two robots, the self-propelled work robot 60 at the head and the hanging robot 50 (in-pipe crane robot) connected by a wire rope 53, are used. In order to keep the length of the wire rope 53 constant, a wire tension detector, a load cell, etc. (not shown) are required, and it is necessary to perform synchronized operation so that there is no difference in the running speed of each robot. be. Additionally, in the case of a robot that runs on wheels using the inner surface of the pipe as a track surface, it is difficult to distribute the weight of the robot evenly among the wheels, and if the pipe is not formed in a perfect circle,
There is a problem that the ground resistance of each wheel is different and the robot meanderes. Therefore, this type of robot has a built-in gyro 56 that detects the robot's posture and operates the steering wheel 57 of the traveling trolley 51 to control the posture of the two robots, but it is difficult to control and the structure is complicated. There is a problem with becoming.

[0006] In addition, each robot has the risk of falling over when traveling on its own or descending vertical piping.
A link-type fall prevention arm 54 and a steadying arm are incorporated to prevent shaking. These devices are
As the pipe diameter increases, the structure becomes larger, its weight increases, and control becomes more complex. As a result, the fall prevention arm 54 of the hanging robot 50 that suspends and supports the working robot 60 also needs to have increased rigidity, and the diameter of the wire rope 53 itself needs to be increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a working head that can continuously move a working robot from a horizontal pipe to a vertical pipe using one robot, in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional technology. To provide a robot for working inside piping that can move up and down and stop while always keeping a rotating arm perpendicular to the pipe axis.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a traveling trolley having a fixed arm that travels within a pipe by itself and stops and holds the main body of the trolley at a predetermined position within the pipe; A link frame in which the pivoted frames are bendably connected by a plurality of hinge parts, supported by a plurality of wheels, and can be slid in a running direction and extended from the running cart; a wire guide frame having a guide pivotally attached to an end, stopped and held in a predetermined position by built-in telescoping legs, and guiding a wire rope wound around the winch; and a winch on the traveling carriage via the guide. The carriage is suspended by a wire guided from the pipe, and is moved up and down inside the vertical pipe by the wire winding and feeding operations of a winch, as well as a work head having a swivel arm for wall work. The device is characterized in that a part of the frame is housed inside, and the wire guide frame and the work head are integrated and run.

[0009]

[Operation] According to the present invention, the carriage body is moved to a predetermined position in the horizontal pipe by the traveling device, the position of the carriage body is fixed by the fixing mechanism such as the fixing arm, and the wire rope is let out from the winch to fix the link frame. Gradually extend the wire guide frame and work head to pass through the elbow pipe, and with the wire guide frame and work head at right angles to the vertical pipe, extend the retractable legs of the wire guide frame to the inner surface of the pipe and remove the wire guide. Fix the frame body. After the guide wheels of the work head are brought into contact with the inner surface of the pipe, the work head is separated from the wire guide frame, the wire rope is let out to a predetermined work position, and the ITV installed at the tip of the swing arm of the work head is positioned.
Inspection and repair work inside piping can be performed using advanced tools such as cameras, cleaning jigs, and painting jigs.

0010

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the robot for working inside piping according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a traveling vehicle, and an attitude detection gyro 1a for detecting the attitude of the traveling vehicle 1 is mounted on the deck of the traveling vehicle 1. Moreover, the traveling trolley 1 is equipped with wheels 2 consisting of wheels 2a with steering and wheels 2b with a built-in distance detection sensor, and is capable of running on its own. On the other hand, a telescopic slide frame 3 that can protrude forward is installed under the deck of the traveling trolley 1, and a pressing fixed arm 4 that presses its tip upward and downward on the inner surface of the piping by air drive. is installed. Further, on the deck of the traveling truck 1, a wire guide 7 for guiding winches 5, 5 and a pretension wire rope 6 installed in parallel is installed. One end of the pretension wire rope 6 is fixed to a rope tension equalizing device 10 via a wire guide 9 at a position equidistant from the center of the wire guide frame body 8. Further, the pretension wire rope 6 can be wound up and let out by operating the winch 5.

Further, a link frame 11 having wheels 12 arranged at predetermined positions is coupled to an end of the slide frame 3. Further, a wire guide frame main body 8 is rotatably coupled to the tip A of the link frame 11, and a lock type cylinder 13 is provided between an approximately central position of the wire guide frame main body 8 and a link frame joining point B of the link frame 11. installed. This lock type cylinder 13 plays the role of tilting and fixing the wire guide frame main body 8. At the end of the wire guide frame main body 8, extendable legs 14 are provided to press toward the inner surface of the pipe.

Further, a working head body 15 is detachably fixed to the wire guide frame body 8 via an attachment/detachment mechanism 16. Guide wheels 17a and 1 are provided at both ends of the work head main body 15 for pressing the inner surface of the pipe with a predetermined pressure.
7b is installed. On the other hand, a working arm 18 is attached to the central position, which can rotate in a plane perpendicular to the piping axis and slide in the radial direction. Also, this work arm 1
A tip tool 19 for working on the piping surface is attached to one tip of the pipe 8.

Next, the operation of the piping work robot constructed as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. First, when working while traveling on a horizontal piping section, this piping work robot maintains the posture shown in Figure 1, and the link frame 11 at the bottom of the traveling trolley 1 is stored in a straight line at the rearward limit of the trolley. has been done. This link frame 1
A wire guide frame 8 is pivoted to the link junction A of No. 1 in a position perpendicular to the piping axis, and this position is a tilting lock type air link connecting the link junction B and the center of the wire guide frame main body 8. It is fixedly held by a cylinder 13 and is held by winding up a pretension wire rope 6 fixedly held by a detachable mechanism 16 provided on the wire guide frame main body 8 and a winch 5 of the traveling truck 1 with a constant tension. . In this posture, the traveling posture is detected by the posture detecting gyro 1a mounted on the traveling trolley 1, and the vehicle can travel on its own in the horizontal pipe while maintaining a predetermined posture using the steering wheels 2a.

When a predetermined working position is reached, the working arm 18 provided on the working head 15 and the tip tool 19 attached to its tip are brought into contact with the inner surface of the tube. This bogie stop position can be detected by the number of revolutions of the wheels 2b with built-in distance detection sensors.

In order to confirm and correct the stop position, an ITV camera 20b is installed near the rotation center of the work arm 18, and an ITV camera 20a is installed at the tip of the work arm 18. It is also possible to monitor images from these ITV cameras 20a and 20b, confirm the stop position from the outside, and correct the stop position by remote control. After stopping at a predetermined position, the working arm 18 is rotated and expanded/contracted so that inspection and repair work on the piping surface can be performed using the tip tool 19 provided at the tip of the working arm 18.

Next, a description will be given of the case where the vehicle passes through a horizontal pipe and passes through an L-shaped elbow. A traveling cart 1 that has been traveling under its own power is stopped at a position immediately before the joint between the L-shaped piping section and the horizontal piping section using the attitude control method for the horizontal piping section. This stopping can also be done automatically using a contact sensor or the like installed on the trolley. After stopping at a predetermined position, the pressing and fixing arm 4 provided on the deck of the traveling vehicle 1 is extended toward the inner surface of the piping, thereby fixing the main body of the traveling vehicle 1. Then, the slide frame 3 under the deck of the traveling truck 1 is extended. The amount of payout is determined by synchronously operating the winch 5 and adjusting the amount of payout of the pretension wire rope 6. At this time, in order to ensure that the working arm 18 always faces at right angles to the L-shaped elbow pipe piping surface, the angle formed by the working arm 18 may be adjusted by extending and contracting the tilting lock cylinder 13. When the wire guide frame main body 8 passes through the junction between the elbow pipe and the vertical pipe, the telescopic legs 14 provided at the end of the wire guide frame main body 8 are projected to the inner surface of the pipe. In addition, at this time, the angle is detected by the attitude detection gyro 1a built in the wire guide frame main body 8,
It is possible to control the posture by expanding and contracting the tilt lock type cylinder 13 by a predetermined amount so that the piping axis and the wire guide frame main body 8 are perpendicular.

Next, the case where the working head main body 15 descends through the vertical pipe section will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the wire guide frame body 8 has already passed through the joint between the L-shaped pipe and the vertical pipe, and is positioned and fixed at a predetermined position on the inner surface of the pipe, and in this state, both sides of the work head body 15 are shown. A guide wheel 17a provided in
17b is simultaneously extended toward the inner surface of the pipe, and the inner surface of the pipe is pressed with a constant pressure to follow the pipe wall. Next, the attachment/detachment mechanism 16 fixing the wire guide frame body 8 and the work head body 15 is released by power such as air, and the work head body 15 is separated from the wire guide frame body 8. At this time, the work head main body 15 is attached to the winch 5 on the traveling truck 1.
It is held by two pretensioned wire ropes 6 wound around. Note that since these two pretension wire ropes 6 are held through a rope tension equalizing device 10, the working head main body 15 is prevented from falling. Also, since the pretension wire rope 6 passes through one coordinate of the center of gravity of the work head main body 15 and is installed at an equal distance from the center of gravity, the elasticity of the pretension wire rope 6 allows the work head 15 to move along the pipe axis of the vertical pipe. It can absorb the acting force that tries to rotate against.

The suspended working head 15 controls the unwinding and winding length of the pretension wire rope 6 by detecting the rotation speed of the winch 5 on the traveling carriage 1.
It can be stopped at a predetermined position. This pretensioned wire rope 6 is made by applying a constant tensile load for a certain period of time to remove initial elongation, so that the wire rope in use does not have a narrowing diameter and can be stopped at a predetermined position. The stopping position can also be confirmed and corrected by monitoring images from the ITV cameras 20a and 20b, confirming the stopping position from the outside, and correcting the stopping position by remote control, in the same manner as when traveling on the horizontal pipe.

Next, a case will be described in which the working head main body 15 and the wire guide frame main body 8 are hoisted from a vertical pipe to a horizontal pipe. The work head main body 15 suspended as described above is hoisted up by the winch 5 on the traveling trolley 1 and attached to the wire guide frame main body 8 fixed in the pipe.
After guiding the work head main body 15 along a guide pin (not shown) to the attachment/detachment mechanism 16 attached to the
It is fixed to the attachment/detachment mechanism 16. At this time, the guide wheels 17a and 17b provided on the wire guide frame main body 8 are in contact with the inner surface of the pipe with a predetermined contact pressure, and can follow the work head 15 when it enters the guide pin. Thereafter, by reversing the procedure from the horizontal piping section to the L-shaped piping section, the work head main body 15 and the wire guide frame main body 8 can be lifted up to the horizontal piping section in a joined state. As a result, even when moving a work robot from a horizontal pipe to a vertical pipe via an elbow pipe, there is no need for synchronized operation of a dedicated lifting robot, etc., and the robot can be made smaller and smaller by simply equipping the work robot with the specified parts. Can be made lighter.

[0021]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to continuously move the piping from the horizontal piping through the elbow piping to the vertical piping, and it is possible to consolidate each divided function into one unit. This has the effect of making the work inside the piping more compact and easier to control.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing the configuration of an embodiment of a piping work robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing one aspect of the piping work robot shown in FIG. 1 passing through an elbow portion.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing one mode of work in a vertical pipe by the piping work robot shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing an example of a conventional piping work robot.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing one mode of work in a vertical pipe by a conventional piping work robot.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Traveling trolley 2 Wheels 3 Slide frame 4 Fixed arm 5 Winch 6 Pretension wire rope 7,9 Wire guide 8 Wire guide frame 11 Link frame 14 Telescopic legs 15 Work head 18 Work arm 19 Tip tool

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A traveling trolley that travels within a pipe under its own power and has a fixed arm that stops and holds the main body of the trolley at a predetermined position within the pipe, and a frame having one end pivotally connected to the traveling trolley, which can be bent at a plurality of hinges. A link frame that is connected and supported by a plurality of wheels and can slide in the running direction and extend from the running trolley, and is pivoted to the other end of this link frame and is moved to a predetermined position by built-in telescoping legs. a wire guide frame having a guide for guiding the wire rope wound around the winch; and a work head having a work arm that moves up and down in the vertical pipe by turning and feeding work, and rotates to work on the wall surface, and the traveling trolley accommodates a part of the link frame inside when traveling in the horizontal pipe. A piping work robot characterized in that it moves by integrally incorporating a wire guide frame and a work head.