$1.4 Million DOE Grant Supports Development of Robot that Inspects Gas Mains

Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says the Explorer Project is central to developing technologies that will enhance the integrity, reliability and security of our nation's natural gas transmission and distribution network.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has announced a two-year, $1.4 million grant for the next-generation of Explorer, a wireless, snake-like, crawling robot developed at Carnegie Mellon for the inspection of active, underground gas mains.

The grant, announced by Abraham at an Oct. 8 press briefing at Carnegie Mellon, is part of $9.4 million awarded to Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, Media and Process Technology, Inc., in Pittsburgh, and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., in Allentown, Pa., for the development of "energy technologies and solutions for the 21st Century," Abraham said.

Abraham said the grants support President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and research into cleaner fossil energy.

Explorer (http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/explorer/) was developed by Hagen Schempf, principal systems scientist in the Robotics Institute, and his team of researchers in the institute's Hazardous Environments Robotics Laboratory at the National Robotics Engineering Consortium. Research partners include the Northeast Gas Association, the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory and NASA.

This past summer, Explorer was deployed by Consolidated Edison Co. of New York in Yonkers, N.Y., where it successfully inspected hundreds of feet of 8-inch-diameter, cast-iron gas main sections originally installed in 1890.

Hagen Schempf says Explorer is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using wireless inspection devices in areas traditionally thought to be inaccessible to humans.

Explorer is segmented like a link sausage with front- and rear-fisheye cameras and lights. By interacting with a remote operator via wireless communication while inside a gas pipe, the robot can relay near real-time images of the pipe's interior, as well as other data, back to the operator who controls and views it from a street-side control van at the excavation site. Explorer can travel great distances from its point of entry into the pipeline. Its travel range is exclusively determined by its wireless communication range and battery power.

"This project is central to developing advanced technologies that will maintain and enhance the integrity, reliability, and security of our nation's natural gas transmission and distribution network," Abraham said. "More than a million miles of natural gas pipelines serve more than 175 million Americans, and it is critical we take every step we can to ensure the safety and reliability of those pipelines.

"Carnegie Mellon's robotic Explorer will see to it—quite literally, in fact—that those pipelines are safe, secure, and in good shape, and that clean, affordable gas for our homes, schools, and businesses remain available," Abraham said.

Schempf has said that Explorer will change the face of infrastructure maintenance. "It is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using high-tech wireless inspection devices in areas traditionally thought to be inaccessible to human beings.

"The implications to potential cost-savings for preventative maintenance, inspection and emergency response should not be overlooked by any utility that has to manage its underground infrastructure," Schempf said.

The University of Pittsburgh was awarded a three-year, $800,000 grant for the development and evaluation of highly CO2-soluble compounds capable of associating in CO2 and forming large viscosity-enhancing macromolecules. The goal is to provide the oil industry with the first economically viable CO2 thickening agent.

Media and Process Technology, Inc., was awarded a three-year, $2.5 million grant to develop a membrane system that combines the water-gas-shift reaction for hydrogen production with a membrane for hydrogen purification in a single step.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., received a four-year, $4.6 million grant to develop reversible liquid-phase hydrogen carrier technology for transporting hydrogen from its central production to its point of use.

"Each of these projects will not only benefit Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania, but will go towards fulfilling a promise made by President Bush when he took office to do everything in his power to guarantee America's long-term energy and economic security," Abraham said.

Bruce Gerson