Radix-2 Design Ltd – Development of “Enhanced Pipeline Inspection system”

In
the Offshore Oil and Gas production industry, there are many situations whereby a pipeline
becomes blocked and production is halted. The use of pipe rig inspection equipment invites
further use of recovery instrumentation.
The Company has previously developed a Hybrid Optical/Acoustic Imaging Device Device
with the support of the NWDA, which led an inspection system for pipelines, which consisted
of an HD camera and high resolution sonars.
Demand from the O&G industry for the pipeline inspection is growing as many of the
pipelines are getting quite old. There is an environmental and industry requirement to service
these pipelines on a regular basis because if the pipeline integrity is breached at any point it
can result in a spill or other contamination within the pipeline which can lead to
contamination and other environmental damage.
The use of existing equipment with video and sonar pipe inspection functions is useful but
limited and there is a demand to develop additional functions to the sensor package to make it
more useful and provide more information on its location.
The first priority is to incorporate an Odometer for measuring the distance that the crawler has
travelled down the pipe. It is proposed to develop a device that can be pointed at the pipe wall
and can pick up movement information, possibly similar to a computer mouse, which knows
where it is by taking rapid snapshots of the surface it is moving on.
The second function is the need of operator to be aware of the system’s orientation of the
sensor through the development of a complete inertial navigation system, with ability to
monitor the shape of the pipe and provide an exact location of its position.
The system will also highlighted any unsupported sections of pipeline, which need remedied