Design of a Rotating Electromagnetic Eddy Current Inspection Robot for Small- Diameter Pipelines

Pipelines are indispensable infrastructure in modern industry, and timely detection of pipeline damage is significantly meaningful for ensuring people's life safety. To address the contradiction between detection accuracy and equipment passability in small - diameter pipeline detection as well as the problem of data communication, a rotating electromagnetic eddy - current (ECT) pipeline inspection robot system is innovatively proposed in this study. The system is designed with a double - layer rotating structure, and 360° inner - wall full - coverage detection is achieved only through two pairs of symmetrically arranged detection coils. In this way, the complexity of detector and system volume are significantly reduced, and the miniaturization potential of pipeline inspection robots is greatly unleashed. Through the 'microcontroller + memory' strategy, the real-time in-pipe storage and time-stamping of detection data are realized by the system, and the issues of data communication and defect localization are resolved. Additionally, a real - time temperature - drift suppression mechanism is introduced into the system, so that the impact of environmental temperature fluctuations on detection data is dynamically compensated.. Experimental verification shows that the system achieves stable movement in pipelines with a diameter of less than 120 mm. While meeting the requirements of miniaturization and lightweight, the EC detector demonstrates good defect - detection performance. The robot system proposed in this paper provides a compact and effective solution for high - precision non - destructive testing (NDT) in restricted industrial environments.