Investigations on the magnetic adhesion properties of pipe surface inspection robot

In recent years, pipeline inspection robotic systems have gained significant attention of researchers and industry as it aids the predictive maintenance. The major share of pipelines used in the industrial infrastructure is made of ferromagnetic material and thus magnetic adhesion based robotic crawlers are the cost-effective solution for real-time inspection. In this paper, the magnetic adhesion generated by a novel permanent magnet arrangement against the ferromagnetic pipe is studied for various configurations. The effect of splitting up a single magnet and the resulting variations in holding strength is studied using simulations. The Finite element method simulation is used to study the magnetic adhesion and is performed using FEMM software. These results of this study provide an insight into the magnetic adhesion generated for pipeline inspection robots and used for designing the payload requirements.