JPH06261423A - Method and system for supplying power to in-pipe running unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method and system for feeding power to an in-pipe running unit in which safety is enhanced without accompanying extreme fatigue. CONSTITUTION:A primary coil 2 is disposed on the outside of a pipe 1 with respect to a battery 13 carried on a running unit 11 and feeding power to a running motor 12. A secondary coil 6 is carried on the running unit 11 in the pipe 1 and the battery 13 is charged by electromagnetic induction from the primary coil 12 to the secondary coil 6 through the wall of the pipe.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for supplying power to a traveling device in a pipe used for inspecting and repairing the inside of a gas supply pipe, etc.
The present invention relates to a method of supplying power to a in-pipe travel device that supplies electric power for charging a storage battery that is mounted on the travel device and that supplies electric power to a load of the travel device, and a power supply device thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a power feeding method and a power feeding apparatus for this type of in-pipe running device depend on the relationship between the capacity of the storage battery and power consumption. A station having a charging electrode t installed in advance at a predetermined position inside the pipe a to be inspected at an interval allowing recharging before being discharged to the storage battery c mounted on the traveling device b. It has been proposed that the battery is configured to be charged (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-65139).

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, in order to previously install the charging electrode at a predetermined position inside the pipe to be inspected, after excavating the earth and sand to the existing pipe position, , Not only the complicated work of cutting a part of the tube and attaching the electrode is necessary, but also when the storage battery of the traveling device is completely discharged between the installed electrodes due to an unexpected situation, It is necessary to dig up the earth and sand at that point and cut a part or all of the pipe to charge or take out the traveling device, and the work of cutting a part of the existing pipe is extremely careful for safety measures. However, there is a drawback that it is a work that requires a lot of fatigue. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, to provide a method of supplying power to a pipe traveling device that is excellent in safety and does not cause extreme fatigue, and a power supply device thereof.

[0004]

In order to achieve this object, a characteristic configuration of a method for supplying power to a traveling device in a pipe according to the present invention is a storage battery mounted on the traveling device and supplying electric power to a load of the traveling device. , A primary coil is arranged outside the pipe, a secondary coil is mounted on a traveling device inside the pipe, and electric power for charging the storage battery is transferred from the primary coil to the secondary coil via a pipe wall. It is at the point of supplying by induction. The characteristic configuration of the power supply device for the in-pipe travel device is a power supply device for the in-pipe travel device that supplies power for charging to a storage battery that is mounted on the travel device and supplies power to the load of the travel device. The primary coil disposed outside the pipe and the secondary coil mounted on the traveling device inside the pipe and supplying electric power from the primary coil by electromagnetic induction through the pipe wall. .

[0005]

That is, electric power is indirectly supplied from the primary coil outside the pipe to the secondary coil mounted on the traveling device located inside the pipe by electromagnetic induction through the pipe wall, and the power is transmitted to the secondary coil. The stored power is charged to the storage battery. To be more specific, if the traveling device is provided with a secondary coil and the primary coil is installed on the outer peripheral portion of the pipe at a predetermined interval, after the traveling device is moved to the installation position of the primary coil, the primary coil is removed from the pipe wall. Power is supplied to the secondary coil by electromagnetic induction via the, and even if the storage battery of the traveling device is completely discharged at a position other than the position where such a primary coil is installed due to an unexpected situation, The earth and sand at the point will be dug up, and a primary coil for charging will be installed on the outer circumference of the pipe for charging.

[0006]

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is necessary to take great care as a safety measure to disconnect the existing pipe and install the electrode for charging the storage battery in order to charge the traveling device. Also, it is possible to build a charging station with a very easy operation of installing the primary coil for charging on the outer wall of the pipe without performing work that requires a great deal of fatigue. Even if the storage battery of the traveling device is completely discharged between the electrodes that have been charged, it is just as easy to charge by digging up the soil at that point and installing a primary coil for charging. Therefore, it is possible to provide a method of supplying power to the in-pipe traveling device that is excellent in safety and does not cause extreme fatigue, and a power supply device thereof.

[0007]

EXAMPLES Examples will be described below. In-pipe traveling device 1
Reference numeral 1 is for traveling inside a pipe 1 for supplying city gas, which is a steel pipe made of cast iron, to perform work such as inspection of the inside of pipe 1 and treatment of the inner surface of the pipe. As shown in FIG. Traveling wheels 10a and 10b are attached to the front and rear of the vehicle body 10, and a traveling electric motor 12 for driving the traveling wheels 10b to the traveling device 11, a storage battery 13 for supplying electric power to the traveling electric motor 12, and a storage battery 13 Circuit 1 for charging
It is equipped with 4 etc.

The traveling device 11 has various sensing means 15 such as a television camera for monitoring the internal condition of the pipe 1, a working device 16 such as a welding machine for repairing the inside of the pipe, and sensing data from the sensing means 15 outside the pipe. The sensing means 1 is equipped with a data transmitter 18 for outputting to a vehicle, a data receiver 19 for receiving steering data or traveling data instructed from the outside of the pipe, and an antenna 20 for transmission and reception.
The sensing data from 5 (such as the internal state data of the pipe 1 and the position data of the traveling device 11) is processed and output to the data transmitter 18, or the electric motor 12 for traveling based on the data received by the data receiver 19 Control device 1 incorporating a microprocessor for driving and controlling the work device 16
7 is provided, so that the operator outside the pipe is
Maintenance work of the pipe 1 is performed while confirming the position of the traveling device 11 through 8 and 19.

The above-mentioned pipe 1 is provided with charging stations S at intervals of several hundred meters. More specifically, as shown in FIG.
A primary coil 2 formed by winding a copper wire 2b around a square-shaped iron core 2a is installed so that the magnetic poles at both ends of the iron core 2a contact the outer wall surface 1a of the tube. AC power is supplied to the copper wire 2 b via the cable 4.

The traveling device 11 has a secondary coil 6 formed by winding a copper wire 6b around an iron core 6a having a U-shape in cross section.
Is provided so that it can be moved up and down by the pantograph mechanism 5, and the operator can operate the storage battery 13 based on the data from the transmitter 18.
After confirming that the residual power of the
1 is moved to the nearest station S, and the operation of the pantograph mechanism 5 causes the magnetic pole positions of both ends of the iron core 6a to correspond to both magnetic pole positions of the primary coil 2 and contact the inner wall surface 1b of the pipe 1. Then, electric power is supplied from the primary coil 2 to the secondary coil 6 through the tube wall 1 by electromagnetic induction. The power supplied to the secondary coil 6 is rectified by the rectifier circuit 7 and then charged in the storage battery 13. That is,
The secondary coil 6 and the rectifying circuit 7 form a charging circuit 14. In this way, the charging is repeated and the inspection work of the long-distance pipe 1 is advanced.

In order to quantitatively analyze the power transmission mechanism as shown in FIG. 3, description will be made based on an equivalent circuit as shown in FIG. Here, in order to simplify the problem, leakage magnetic flux is not taken into consideration, but since the magnetic path is entirely made of a magnetic material, there is no significant deviation. The point P in the figure is the magnetic circuit seen to the right from the gap between the primary core and the gas pipe. As can be seen from the figure, the energy transfer efficiency (η = Φ _e / Φ
₀ ) is not related to R _y1 and R _d1 .

Where primary coil; external excitation coil primary iron core; external magnetic path ly1 magnetic path length of primary core [m] sy1 cross-sectional area of primary core [m ² ] d1 gap between primary core and gas tube [m] Gas tube; lp gas tube magnetic path length [m] sp gas tube magnetic path cross-sectional area [m ² ] secondary coil; robot power-receiving coil secondary iron core; internal magnetic path ly2 magnetic path length of secondary iron core [m Sy2 Cross-sectional area of secondary iron core [m ² ] d2 Gap between secondary iron core and gas pipe [m], and each parameter of the equivalent porcelain circuit is expressed as follows. V _m : Magnetomotive force of primary coil (product of coil winding number N and one coil current I [A] Φ ₀ ; magnetic flux generated by V _m [Wb] Φ _p ; magnetic flux flowing in gas pipe [Wb] Φ _e ; two Magnetic flux flowing in the secondary coil [Wb] R _y1 ; magnetic resistance of primary iron core [A / Wb] R _d1 ; magnetic resistance of gap between primary iron core and gas pipe [A / W
b] R _p ; magnetic resistance of gas pipe [A / Wb] R _d2 ; magnetic resistance of gap between secondary core and gas pipe [A / W
b] R _y2 ; Magnetic resistance of secondary iron core [A / Wb]

Considering the right side from the point P shown in FIG. 4, there is a relation of Φ ₀ = Φ _p + Φ _e between the magnetic fluxes, and assuming that the magnetomotive forces of the branches are equal, R _p Φ _p = (R _d2 + R _y2 ) Φ _{e From} both equations, η = Φ _e / Φ ₀ = R _p / (R _p + R _d2 + R _y2 ). If the magnetic resistance of each branch is μ, _p = l _p / μ ₀ μ _p S _p R _d2 = d ₂ / μ ₀ S _y2 R _v2 = l _y2 / μ ₀ μ _y2 S _y2 where S _p is the magnetic path effective area of the gas pipe (briefly, It cannot be expressed). Further, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the relative magnetic permeability of each magnetic substance is the same and the areas of the magnetic paths are the same. That is, μ _p = μ _y2 (= μ _r ), S _p = S _y2 (= S _r ) From the above, the magnetic path length l _p in the gas pipe and the magnetic path length l of the secondary iron core are
_{If y2} is equal, the energy transfer efficiency (η = Φ _e /
Φ ₀ ) is

[0014]

[Equation 1]

[0015] From Equation 1, if there is no magnetic path gap between the secondary core and the gas pipe, the energy transfer efficiency becomes 0.5, which is qualitatively consistent. As a practical value,
If the relative permeability of the magnetic material of the magnetic path is (μ _r = 100), the gap (d ₂ = 0.2 mm), and the length of the magnetic path in the iron core and the gas pipe is ( _{ly 2} = 10 cm), then η = 25%, and 25% of the primary coil is transferred.
If the relative permeability of the magnetic material of the magnetic path is (μ _r = 1000), the gap (d ₂ = 0.2 mm), and the length of the magnetic path in the iron core and the gas tube is ( _{ly 2} = 10 cm), then η = 4.5%. In order to improve the energy transfer efficiency, from the above analysis, 1. To reduce the energy gap 1. 2. Make the permeability of the secondary core larger than that of the gas pipe. There are three points of increasing the magnetic path length. In order to increase the absolute energy transmission amount, in addition to the above improvements, the primary side gap d ₁
It is preferable to decrease (closely contact), increase the relative permeability of the primary core, increase the cross-sectional area of the entire magnetic path, and reduce the overall magnetic resistance.

Another embodiment will be described below. In the above embodiment, the traveling device 11 is described in which the secondary coil 6 is provided by the pantograph mechanism 5 so as to be movable up and down. However, as shown in FIG. 5, the axle 20 and the wheels 21 and 22 are permanent magnets. In a case where a traveling wheel is configured to travel by magnetically adsorbing to an inner wall of a pipe, a coil is wound around the axle 20 and the secondary core functions as the axle 20 and the wheels 21 and 22 to configure a charging circuit. You may. In the above embodiment, the pipe 1 to be inspected by the traveling device 11 has been described as being the pipe 1 for supplying city gas, but the pipe to be inspected is not limited to this, and the pipe in the chemical plant is not limited to this. It is possible to target any piping such as. In addition, when the capacity of the storage battery 8 decreases during traveling and it is necessary to charge the battery, a circuit for detecting the capacity is provided, and it is detected that the value becomes a predetermined value or less, and the pantograph mechanism is raised. A smooth charging operation may be performed by providing a control circuit that allows the charging preparation operation such as the above before the capacity is completely consumed.

It should be noted that reference numerals are added to the claims for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configurations of the accompanying drawings by the entry.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a power supply device.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an in-pipe traveling device that travels in the pipe.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a calculation model

FIG. 4 Equivalent circuit diagram

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part showing another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a main part showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Tube 2 Primary Coil 6 Secondary Coil 11 Traveling Device 12 Traveling Motor 13 Storage Battery

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiyuki Yamada 17 Nakadoji Minami-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture Kyoto Research Park Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A primary coil (2) is arranged outside a pipe (1) for a storage battery (13) mounted on a traveling device (11) and supplying electric power to a load of the traveling device (11). , A secondary coil (6) is mounted on a traveling device (11) inside the pipe (1), and electric power for charging the storage battery (13) is supplied from the primary coil (2) to the secondary coil (6). A power supply method to a traveling device in a pipe, which is supplied by electromagnetic induction through a pipe wall. 2. A traveling device (11) mounted on a traveling device.
Is a power supply device for a traveling device in a pipe, which supplies electric power for charging, to a storage battery (13) which supplies electric power to a load of the pipe, and a primary coil (2) arranged outside the pipe (1); To an in-pipe traveling device which is mounted on the traveling device (1) inside (1) and which is composed of a secondary coil (6) for supplying electric power from the primary coil (2) by electromagnetic induction through a pipe wall. Power supply device.