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The robotic manipulator is designed to test welded joints of pipeline systems, specifically circumferential welds of pipes and sleeves. "The uniqueness of the manipulator lies primarily in the possibility of its very easy installation to the pipeline when the robot is fixed to the surface of the pipeline by a flexible toothed belt, in which its tensioning is actively controlled," said Martin Švejda from the ACROSS team of the NTIS research center of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. In most cases, existing manipulators have a fixed frame attached to the pipe they move. Installing such manipulators is less flexible, lengthy, and uncomfortable for the operator.

Another technical benefit of the new manipulator is testing more complex pipe welds, e.g., in power plants. "The perpendicular connection of two pipes with different diameters is very common in power plant operations, and there is an inevitable requirement to check these welds," explains another ACROSS team member, Arnold Jaeger. The robot enables testing of more complex pipe welds by simply moving along the weld and by the sweeping motion commonly used in non-destructive testing applications. An integral part of the manipulator is an intuitive operator control in the form of a wirelessly connected industrial tablet. "Simple and comfortable operation is essential when working with the robot. We must always consider that defectoscopists are not experts in programming and operating robots. Therefore, it is necessary to consistently consult the requirements with future users and then integrate them appropriately into the design of the operator control", emphasized Tomáš Čechura from the ACROSS team.

The manipulator, currently not in commercial use, is a result of the collaborative efforts of the ACROSS team members and the experts from our industrial partner, ÚJV Řež a.s. This collaboration is now focused on testing the manipulator on real test bodies, with the goal of refining it for deployment in the Temelín and Dukovany nuclear power plants. The newly developed robotic manipulator was presented by our experts at the Defektoskopia 2024 conference, held under the auspices of the Slovak Society for Non-Destructive Testing in Nový Smokovec, Slovakia.

(This project is funded with state support from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the DELTA 2 Programme (TM03000049) Advanced Robotics for Non-Destructive Inspection in Harsh Environments (ARIHE).)