| Project Id
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BITS025F001461
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| Project Detail
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| Project Title
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Development of an Intelligent Pipe-Climbing Robot for Pipeline Inspection
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| Senior Supervision Team (BITS)
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| Supervisor name and Title
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Abhishek Sarkar
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School or Department (or company, if applicable)
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BITS PILANI, HYDERABAD CAMPUS
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Email ID
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abhisheks@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
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| URL for more info
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https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/dr-abhishek-sarkar/
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| a) Are you currently supervising a BITS or RMIT HDR student?
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YES
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| Please comment how many you are supervising
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1
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| b) Have you supervised an offshore candidate before?
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NO
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| If no, what support structures do you have in place?
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|
| If yes, please elaborate
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N
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| Senior Supervision Team (RMIT)
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| Supervisor name and Title
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Professor Alireza Bab-Hadiashar
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School or Department (or company, if applicable)
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STEM
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|
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Email ID
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alireza.bab-hadiashar@rmit.edu.au
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| URL for more info
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https://www.rmit.edu.au/profiles/b/alireza-bab-hadiashar
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| a) Are you currently supervising a BITS or RMIT HDR student?
|
YES
|
| Please comment how many you are supervising
|
8
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| b) Have you supervised an offshore candidate before?
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NO
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| If no, what support structures do you have in place?
|
|
| If yes, please elaborate
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| Other Supervisors (BITS)
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| Supervisor name and Title
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Vasan Arunachalam
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School or Department (or company, if applicable)
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BITS PILANI, HYDERABAD CAMPUS
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| Phone Number (Optional)
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04066303510
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Email ID
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vasan@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
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| URL for more info
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https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/hyderabad/a-vasan/
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| Other Supervisors (BITS)
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| Supervisor name and Title
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|
School or Department (or company, if applicable)
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|
| Phone Number (Optional)
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Email ID
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|
| URL for more info
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| Field of Research (For Codes)
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| 090602 | Control Systems, Robotics and Automation | 40.00 |
| 110906 | Sensory Systems | 30.00 |
| 460205 | Intelligent robotics | 30.00 |
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| Project Description
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|
Water pipeline inspection in India faces several unique challenges due to a combination of infrastructure, environmental, and socio-economic factors. Many water supply networks in India are decades old, leading to corrosion, scaling, and frequent leaks. Lack of detailed mapping of underground pipelines, dense urban areas complicate inspection and maintenance. Road congestion and infrastructure development increase the risk of pipeline damage during construction activities.
Variation in pipe diameters adds complexity to deploying robotic systems or sensors. Dependency on manual inspection methods that are time-consuming and less accurate. Limited use of modern inspection technologies like robotic crawlers, smart sensors, or advanced leak detection systems due to budget constraints.
A robotic system with sensors can navigate through pipelines and detect issues like cracks, corrosion, blockages, and leaks. This robot is highly effective for inspecting hard-to-reach areas, minimizing human risk, and providing accurate data. There are several sensors used for pipe inspection, a remote-controlled camera can identify cracks, blockages, and corrosion; Ultrasonic Testing can detect wall thickness, corrosion, and other internal defects; magnetic fields can detect metal loss or corrosion and leak detection systems using sensors or acoustic equipment.
Several robotic systems equipped with advanced sensors are available for inspecting water supply pipelines. All the commercially available robots are having limitations of mobility in vertical climbing, sharp bends and T-junctions, etc. We want to develop a pipe climbing robot prototype, which can overcome the above mentioned limitations and increase the flexibility of accessing critical locations of a pipe network.
Objectives:
Study the scope of different types of pipe climbing robot for pipeline inspection,
Design and development of the prototype of the pipe inspection robot,
Incorporation of sensors and collection of data for scaling, internal crack, and pipe defects,
Analysis of the sensor data for monitoring and evaluation of the pipe condition.
Methodology:
A pipe climbing robot prototype will be designed and developed as per the desired pipe diameter.
Sensors and a camera will be attached on the pipe climbing robot.
The robot will be deployed inside the pipe network for collecting the sensor data.
The sensor data and visual data will be used to train a machine learning model for the detection of defects.
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| Project Deliverable/Outcomes
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- A prototype of the Pipe climbing robot will be developed
- Maneuverability of the pipe climbing robot will be tested for a complex pipe network.
-Sensor data will be collected for different pipe conditions, i.e. sediment, crack, corrosion and leak.
- A machine learning model will be developed based on sensor and vision data for the detection of the defects in the pipeline.
- Two journal papers and two conference proceedings will be published based on the proposed work.
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| Research Impact Themes
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| AI/ML and Data Analytics / Data Science with a focus on applications/translation in | Infrastructure & Urban Development |
| ENHANCED LIVABILITY AND URBAN FUTURES | URBAN ENVIRONMENTS AND SMART CITIES, WATER STEWARDSHIP AND EFFECTIVE WATER USE |
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| Which RMIT Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) does your project align to
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SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
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| Which RMIT Enabling Impact Platform (EIP) does your project align to
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URBAN FUTURES
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| Which RMIT Program code will this project sit under?
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DR216 (MECH AND MECHATRONICS)
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| Student Capabilities and Qualifications
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Robotics, Mechatronics, Machine Learning
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Mechanisms, Mechanical Design, Embedded Systems, CAD,
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MTech
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| Preferred discipline of Student
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| Artificial Intelligence |
| Mechanical Enineering, Mechanics, Mechatronics, Aerospace Eng, Hypersonics |
| Robotics, Sensors, Signal Processing, Control Engineering |
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