General Electric Company

Justin Michael Foehner

Todd William Danko

Douglas Roy Forman

Shiraj Sen

Yakov Polishchuk

Alexander Kyle Duncan

John Robert Hoare

Huan Tan

Romano Patrick

Steven Robert Gray

Judith Ann Guzzo

A system for use in maintaining a pipe having a sidewall is provided. The system includes a motorized apparatus sized to fit within the pipe and configured to travel along the pipe through an interior cavity. The motorized apparatus includes a plurality of leg assemblies coupled circumferentially around a body assembly. The body assembly includes an actuator assembly coupled to each leg assembly and configured to independently actuate each leg assembly to adjust a position of each leg assembly. The body assembly also includes at least one sensor configured to collect information associated with the position of each leg assembly. The body assembly also includes a controller communicatively coupled to the motorized apparatus and configured to receive the information from the sensor, and to determine at least one of a pipe diameter and a pitch of the motorized apparatus based on the information from the at least one sensor.

Systems and methods for maintaining pipes

A motorized apparatus for use in maintaining a pipe includes at least one drive portion including a body assembly, a plurality of leg assemblies coupled circumferentially around the body assembly, a plurality of drive mechanisms coupled to the plurality of leg assemblies, and a drive portion coupling mechanism. The motorized apparatus also includes at least one maintenance portion including a body, at least one maintenance device coupled to the body, and a maintenance portion coupling mechanism configured to engage the drive portion coupling mechanism. The at least one drive portion is releasably coupled to the at least one maintenance portion by engaging the drive portion coupling mechanism with the maintenance portion coupling mechanism. The drive portion coupling mechanism and the maintenance portion coupling mechanism are each configured to engage another coupling mechanism when the drive portion coupling mechanism and the maintenance portion coupling mechanism are uncoupled from each other.

A system for use in maintaining a pipe having a sidewall is provided. The system includes a motorized apparatus sized to fit within the pipe and configured to travel along the pipe through an interior cavity. The motorized apparatus includes a plurality of leg assemblies each including a first leg portion, a second leg portion, and a joint rotatably coupling the first leg portion to the second leg portion. A drive mechanism coupled to the joint is configured to interact with the sidewall. The system also includes an actuator assembly configured to independently position each leg assembly relative to a body assembly to adjust a radial position of the joint of the associated leg assembly relative to the body assembly. The system also includes a controller configured to send instructions to the actuator assembly based at least in part on at least one of a dimension of the interior cavity and a desired force on the sidewall.

A motorized apparatus for use in maintaining a pipe having a sidewall is provided. The motorized apparatus includes a body assembly sized to fit within and to travel along an interior cavity of the pipe. The body assembly includes a first end and a second end and extending along a longitudinal axis. The body assembly also includes a plurality of leg assemblies coupled circumferentially around the body assembly. Each leg assembly includes a telescoping portion, a bias member coupled to the telescoping portion, and a drive mechanism configured to interact with the sidewall as the body assembly travels along the pipe. The body assembly also includes at least one sensor configured to collect data associated with a force between the sidewall and the drive mechanism, and an actuator assembly coupled to each leg assembly and configured to independently actuate each the leg assembly.

In accordance with certain implementations of the present approach, a reduced, element-by-element, data set is transmitted between a robot having a sensor suite and a control system remote from the robot that is configured to display a representation of the environment local to the robot. Such a scheme may be useful in allowing a human operator remote from the robot to perform an inspection using the robot while the robot is on-site with an asset and the operator is off-site. In accordance with the present approach, an accurate representation of the environment in which the robot is situated is provided for the operator to interact with.

Dynamically representing a changing environment over a communications channel

A system for use in maintaining a wind turbine blade includes a motorized apparatus sized to fit within an interior cavity of the wind turbine blade and configured to travel along a length of the wind turbine blade on an interior surface when the wind turbine blade is in a substantially horizontal position. The motorized apparatus includes a body, a drive system configured to move the body, and a camera coupled to the body. The camera is configured to capture at least one image of the interior surface. The system also includes a controller configured to map the at least one image onto a model of the interior surface. The system also includes an operator interface including a display device. The operator interface is configured to display the model on the display device and receive user input allowing an operator to interact with the model.

Systems and methods for maintaining wind turbine blades

A system for performing industrial tasks includes a robot and a computing device. The robot includes one or more sensors that collect data corresponding to the robot and an environment surrounding the robot. The computing device includes a user interface, a processor, and a memory. The memory includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive the collected data from the robot, generate a virtual recreation of the robot and the environment surrounding the robot, receive inputs from a human operator controlling the robot to demonstrate an industrial task. The system is configured to learn how to perform the industrial task based on the human operator's demonstration of the task, and perform, via the robot, the industrial task autonomously or semi-autonomously.

Systems and method for robotic learning of industrial tasks based on human demonstration

The present approach employs a context-aware simulation platform to facilitate control of a robot remote from an operator. Such a platform may use the prior domain/task knowledge along with the sensory feedback from the remote robot to infer context and may use inferred context to dynamically change one or both of simulation parameters and a robot-environment-task state being simulated. In some implementations, the simulator instances make forward predictions of their state based on task and robot constraints. In accordance with this approach, an operator may therefore issue a general command or instruction to a robot and based on this generalized guidance, the actions taken by the robot may be simulated, and the corresponding results visually presented to the operator prior to evaluate prior to the action being taken.

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Penfield, NY, United States of America

Justin Michael Foehner