Mechanical Design · MCTE3250

Pipe Inspection Robot

SOLIDWORKSMechanical DesignRoboticsCAD

Brief

Send a camera where a person can't go.

Inspecting the inside of a pipe means a machine that can travel down it, stay centred, and carry a camera to see what’s there. The project is the mechanical design of that machine — modelled as a full SolidWorks assembly.

Mechanical Design

Camera module, sealed electronics, and a bracing linkage.

The assembly is built from purpose-modelled parts:

a camera module with a protective dome/lens holder at the front,
sealed electronics and sensor compartments (left and right) to keep hardware protected inside the body,
an articulated linkage-arm and frame mechanism to brace against the pipe wall and keep the robot centred as it moves,
a cylindrical body tying the subsystems together.

Exploded SolidWorks view of the pipe-inspection robot: two articulated linkage-arm assemblies, twin sealed electronics and sensor compartments forming the central body, and a camera module with a protective dome at the front. — Exploded SolidWorks assembly — articulated bracing arms, twin sealed electronics/sensor compartments, and the front camera module with its protective dome.

Design Intent

Modular, protected, and adaptable to the pipe.

Splitting the robot into discrete modules keeps it serviceable, the sealed compartments protect the electronics in a hostile environment, and the linkage arms let one body adapt to the pipe instead of relying on a single fixed diameter. The components were modelled and detailed with engineering drawings in SolidWorks.