A needle-sized robotic inspection device being developed by LSU researchers could allow workers in the industrial space to inspect previously inaccessible equipment. The portable device, developed by researchers affiliated with LSU’s Center for Innovations in Structural Integrity Assurance, can maneuver through tight spaces inside pipelines, heat exchangers, pumps, turbines and other industrial equipment while transmitting video from a small camera at its tip.
The potential payoff is reduced downtime and lower inspection costs, particularly in industries where taking equipment apart can be time-consuming and expensive.
“We were motivated largely by needs in the petrochemical, oil and gas processing and heavy equipment industries,” says Hunter Gilbert, an LSU mechanical engineering associate professor and researcher involved in the project.
The concept may sound similar to a borescope, a long-established inspection instrument consisting of a camera attached to a thin, flexible tube. But Gilbert says LSU’s device offers a degree of maneuverability that existing inspection tools generally cannot match.
“The level of capability this tool provides goes well beyond the existing technology that facilitates visual inspection. … This technology can steer better and get into tighter spaces,” he says.
Gilbert describes the device as a “needle-sized tentacle” made from a series of nested tubes, similar to an old telescoping antenna. It can turn as it extends, enabling an operator to intentionally guide it around bends and through small openings rather than just pushing a flexible camera forward.
The project was inspired by similar robotic tools developed for medical procedures. Gilbert and other LSU researchers recognized that technology designed to navigate the human body could be adapted for industrial inspection.
The team, which has been working on the project since 2022, recently conducted field trials on centrifugal pumps at Flowserve’s regional pump repair facility in Baton Rouge. Flowserve came away impressed.
“The capability of this tool was impressive,” Flowserve Regional Business Development Manager Robert Barrilleaux said in a statement. “It would give us a level of precision maneuverability in the equipment that is currently not available in a shop environment. This could be a major assistance for nonintrusive inspections for troubleshooting, performance verification and improving the overall repair experience.”
Researchers are now using feedback from those field trials to further refine the device while working with industry partners and LSU’s Office of Innovation and Technology Commercialization to determine how to bring it to market.
And while the current prototype carries only a camera, the device’s hollow body means it could eventually have other uses. Gilbert says potential applications could include depositing sensors, laying conductors or delivering spray coatings inside equipment.
“It’s hard to predict the exact set of capabilities that might exist in the future,” he says, “but it does have a hollow body, so we could do more with it than just put a camera on it.”
