Tethered Robotic Rover for Gas Pipeline Inspection

A tethered four-wheel robotic inspection platform developed for surveying industrial pipelines using three onboard IP cameras, Ethernet-based teleoperation, skid-steer mobility and real-time battery telemetry.

---

The Engineering Challenge

Industrial pipeline inspection presents a difficult combination of constrained access, poor visibility, rugged mechanical conditions and unreliable wireless propagation. Metallic pipe structures can significantly attenuate radio signals, making a wireless-only solution less dependable for simultaneous control and multi-camera video. The rover therefore uses a tethered Ethernet architecture to provide deterministic control and direct access to multiple IP camera streams

Four-wheel skid-steer rover platform with onboard vision and control hardware:

The rover uses a custom chassis fabricated from laser-cut ABS plastic. ABS was selected for its impact resistance, durability and relatively low weight, helping reduce propulsion load while maintaining adequate mechanical strength. The vehicle uses a four-wheel skid-steer drivetrain, with direction controlled by varying the relative speed of the left and right wheel sets. Propulsion is provided by four 12 V, 200 RPM high-torque DC geared motors. High-quality motor drives from Cytron were used to deliver a thumping power of up to 20Amps (as shown in the image below). This ascertains that even if there is a rough terrain, heavy drag or multiple bends in the pipeline or constricted path, there would be near zero stalling issues.

Multi-Camera Vision System:

The rover carries three CP Plus network cameras connected to an onboard Ethernet network. The operator PC can access each camera directly through its IP address while simultaneously communicating with the embedded controller (from TI). This arrangement provides multiple viewing angles for inspection of internal pipe surfaces, joints, obstacles and surrounding areas that may not be visible from a single forward-facing camera. The cameras can be customized as per customer’s need. Existing cameras also can be integrated with customized engineering solutions. Talk to us for such requirements.

Embedded & Network Architecture

The central embedded controller is the Texas Instruments MSP-EXP432E401Y LaunchPad. It receives high-level commands over Ethernet and converts them into hardware-level motor-control outputs. An onboard TP-Link TL-SF1005D 5-port Ethernet switch connects Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 3, the MSP432 controller and the tether leading back to the operator PC

Power Distribution & Battery Management

The rover is powered by a 22.2 V, 6S, 10,000 mAh LiPo battery with a 25/50C discharge rating. Battery protection is provided by a DALY 6S 24 V 50 A Smart BMS, providing over-charge, over-discharge and short-circuit protection. The protected battery output feeds a G-energy GEMSD241230 buck converter, which generates a regulated 12 V bus capable of delivering up to 30 A / 360 W.

• 4 × Cytron MD20A motor drivers
• 3 × CP Plus network cameras/Eqv.
• 5-port GbE Ethernet switch
• secondary 12 V → 5 V conversion for logic power

Software Architecture

Operator Control & Telemetry

Motor commands are transmitted to the rover at static IP 172.16.x.y on TCP port 1000. The operator interface also visualizes connection state, battery characteristics and left/right motor outputs. This technology over TCP can be migrated to UDP or other protocols if needed for customization. Port number can be replaced as per demand. The example here is only for the reason of understanding

Field Testing

The prototype was evaluated inside actual large-diameter industrial pipe sections to assess mobility, control, camera placement and tethered operation under realistic conditions. Mostly the successful commissioning has been in the coal pipelines, gaseous exhaust pipelines, chambers with one entry-exit routes and difficult to enter and toxic places where manual inspection becomes risky. This rover can take care of fully automated assisted inspection during shutdown of the plant or at demand (with additional AI-ML add-ons).

Key Specifications

Parameter	Specification
Drive	4-wheel skid steer
Motors	4 × 12 V, 200 RPM geared DC motors (minimum), may be designed per requirement of the customer
Controller	Texas Instruments MSP432E401Y (MCU / MPU may be changed in future as per requirement or availability)
Motor Drivers	Suitable as per design
Cameras	3 x up to 4K IP CAMERAS (non-POE preferred)
Network	Onboard 5-port GbE Ethernet switch / Optical Fiber for specific designs. Incase FO is used; media converters will be included in design at both ends
Communication	Tethered Ethernet with Proprietary stacks directly included in the design
Control Protocol	TCP / IP, UDP, QUIC, SOME/IP, DDS / RTPS (if using ROS)
Control Update Rate	Configurable
Rover IP	Selected per design / as per your IT department
TCP Port	Selected per design / as per your IT department
Battery	22.2 V, 6S, 10,000 mAh LiPo
BMS	24 V / 50 A Smart BMS
Main DC Bus	24 VDC / 12VDC
Converter Capacity	Up to 30 A / 360 W
Operator Software	Our proprietary designed application designed on Python
Embedded Firmware	Multi-layered stacked design by us on C/C++ 17/ with integration of authorized TI’s Simplelink SDK, NDK, opensource libraries, FreeRTOS/ other RTOS, our proprietary network stacks. If you want to read more on Simplelink click here
Payload capacity	6-7 Kg with minimal design. Can be customized as per customer
Version released	GUI App v2.1.1 (exe), Driver firmware v1.0.1, Updateable via OTA / FOTA (for specific models), Handheld driving joystick unit is interfaced over USB 2.0 or higher. Laptop needs atlease 100 Mbps ethernet connectivity

Test Scenarios Evaluated

Engineering Outcome

The project resulted in a functional pipeline-survey platform combining high-torque mobility, IP-based multi-camera imaging, embedded control, battery management and deterministic tethered networking. The 360 W power architecture supports the propulsion, vision and networking subsystems, while the custom Python control application provides smooth teleoperation and real-time status visualization.

Mechanics, power electronics, embedded firmware, networking and operator software were engineered as one integrated inspection platform.

Technology Stack

MSP432E401Y
Embedded C
Python
Ethernet
TCP/IP
TI SimpleLink & Proprietary
POSIX Threads
IP Cameras
Battery Management
Motor Control
Skid-Steer Robotics
LiPo Power System

Download links / resources

If you have issues with the QR, click here to download the GUI. We always link to latest released GUI, if you want lower releases, please email us at info@twinstruments.in

---