Smart P.I.G

General frame and electronics.
SmartPig Application

Manufacturing plants, refineries, and factory settings all require thousands of pipes to transport oil, highly-pressurized gas, or other possibly hazardous chemicals. However, when even one pipe corrodes, overheats, or breaks down under stress, this can cause the whole factory system to be shut down or even worse cause a fatal catastrophe. With the goal of reaching hard-to-reach spots, the Smart P.I.G (Pipeline Inspection Gauge) makes pipe inspection in large-scale factories much easier and safer for workers onsite. Using various sensors on board like a digital temperature sensor, a photoresistor, and ultrasonic sensors to navigate the pipes autonomously. Along with navigating autonomously through the pipes, the SMART P.I.G provides live relay to the user of the status of the pipe currently being navigated. If there is an anomaly detected, the sensor in question will display it on the user interface and make that not on the map. We built this using cardboard pieces and other scrap electronics parts where an ESP 32 was used as the brain of the robot. Finding a power source that worked was the most challenging part where we ended up borrowing the ones that were provided at the hackathon along with motors not correctly working. On the other hand, we are proud that SMART P.I.G works as a prototype and even moves, so we are looking forward to presenting what we got. Next for SMART P.I.G is moving away from cardboard on the prototype and designing an actual frame and arms.