Environment Identification and Path Planning for Autonomous NDT Inspection of Spherical Storage Tanks

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to inspection planning in spherical storage tanks by an autonomous climbing robot. The objective is the automatic extraction of some environment characteristics, by robot, to predict the tank dimensions and robot localization. Three distinct perception sources (long range laser rangefinder, light detection and ranging, and depth camera) are used to predict a 3D occupancy grid wrapping calculated tank. From this grid, a path for tank inspection is computed that ensuring a complete icon at the entire tank surface. This scanning must consider kinematic constraints of magnetic wheels and NDT standard. The approach is evaluated in four LPG's spherical tanks virtually designed with same characteristics that real tank projects.