NAVCAM - Articulated Pipe Inspection

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The NAVCAM project aims to design and build a flexible camera head which can have its shape and direction of travel manipulated remotely. To achieve this, Forth Engineering will develop a soft robotic, pneumatic muscle which will support a camera sensor. The pneumatic muscle and the camera head will be supported by a tether providing electrical and pneumatic connections back to a remote operator. The purpose of this development is to allow better access to fresh water supply pipelines providing water companies with a more reliable and cost-effective means of surveying pipelines for internal damage. Currently, the cameras that are fed into the water network have a spring connection between the camera and the tether. This allows them to be pushed around corners but does not allow for control of the direction once when faced with a junction in the pipe. Also, current technology doesn't allow cameras to navigate through the most common type 2 hydrants and therefore this can lead outages and disruptive excavations. NAVCAM provides camera operators the freedom to navigate a planned inspection route thus saving time and allowing for more effective identification of leakage points.Throughout development and production, the NAVCAM project will utilise state of the art additive manufacturing techniques. This provides greater design flexibility and allows for cost effective prototyping. It will also help the subfield of soft robotics in its transition from R&D to real world applications. Once the solution has been developed for use in the inspection of pipe networks, it is predicted that there will be numerous opportunities for further development across multiple industries.In addition to the soft robotics development. The project will also develop mechanical solutions for accessing live water pipes without loss of pressure and for driving the camera and the tether into the pipe network without manual input from the operator.