The Engineering College at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) has presented a new innovative project that meets the requirements of oil rich countries. An integrated team of the college has invented a new device that facilitates the detection of pipe holes. The device is called ‘Pipe Leak Detection Robot’, which automatically checks pipes for holes and leaks.
Dr. Mamoun Abdel-Hafez, Professor and Head of Mechanical Engineering Department at AUS, gave a detailed explanation of his and his team’s invention, stressing that the device, which they had been working on for three years is self-propelled and uses an internal gas or oil powered engine inside the pipe to detect leakage most accurately.
He explained that the device employs GPS maps and other self-measuring systems to send signals on the location of the hole and the leak most precisely. Abdel-Hafez stressed that the importance of the device lies in the fact that the very long pipelines commonly cover different topographical areas including deserts, underground, seas and oceans.
The robot has a navigation system specially developed for this purpose. After a hole is detected, the robot uses an innovative algorithm to pinpoint the exact location. The algorithm processes multiple data of different characteristics to locate the hole or the robot at any moment. The robot also has a communication system that allows the operator to send instructions to the robot wirelessly and follow the robot’s operation while testing short pipelines.
Besides Professor Abdel-Hafez, the project was supervised by Dr. Mohammad Jaradat, Associate Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr. Shayok Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department, Eng. Waseem Al Masri and Eng. Danial Waleed.
