Morphological Computation for Adaptive PIG Behavior: From Simulation to Prototype Development
Our ambitious goal is to develop an intelligent pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) which can autonomously adapt its morphology to deal with the unexpected and nonlinear pressure in the pipe. The morphological adaptation will be done by changing its body structure (e.g., valve in the middle of the body) with minimal power requirement. Changing the valve will affect the flow rate passing through the PIG which can result in an ability for speed regulation. Achieving this will allow us to perform in-pipe inspection precisely and efficiently. According to the goal and based on Phase I, MC-PIG (Phase II) focuses on MC-PIG hardware design with adaptation and lab environment demonstration (TRL4-5).
