Pipebots Sprint 2: First Integrated System
Pipebots researchers gathered at Sheffield University’s Integrated Civil and Infrastructure Research Centre (ICAIR) to take part in the project’s second Sprint event. Sprint 2 involves a month long effort by all researchers to design, build and test a proof-of-concept integrated system, capable of autonomously exploring a pipe environment. The team provided an update on research progress thus far, and conducted a survey of available buried pipes at ICAIR. Fruitful discussions centred on desired control, sensing and mapping capability, and subsequent size, power and communication constraints. The team will reconvene again in four weeks to test the new ‘SprintBot’ in a challenging navigation task.