Fury: Robotic In-Situ Inspection/Condition Assessment System for Underground Storage Tanks

Abstract

The Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR 280-281) required all underground storage tanks (USTs) containing petroleum products to be brought into compliance to prevent environmental contamination through leakage. Replacing all older USTs can, in some cases, be prohibitively expensive. One alternative to requiring that tanks pass a precision tightness test is to retrofit USTs with cathodic protection for continued use. To pursue this alternative, there is a need for more cost-effective and reliable tank condition assessment methods. The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USACERL) in conjunction with RedZone Robotics, Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA developed a remote, robotic UST condition inspection/assessment system named Fury to meet this need. Fury is a robotic crawler, which moves inside a UST by means of magnetic wheels. It includes 90-degree transition arms for robot positioning on tank end-caps and has a central pivot to allow for full motion of the steering head. The robot is designed to fit through an existing small diameter pipe, which mitigates invasive tank entry during assessment and allows for non-destructive evaluation. Control of the Fury is accomplished through a tether attached to the rear of the robot. Fury utilizes ultrasonic transducers on a sensor sled to obtain approximately 90,000 wall thickness measurements per hour at over 95% of cylindrical-wall or end-cap locations. Under this Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) project, Fury was (1) successfully validated on a subsequently excavated UST at Fort Lee, VA from 18-26 August, 1996, and (2) successfully demonstrated in three USTs at Hunter Army Air Field (a sub-unit of Fort Stewart, GA) from 18 February to 7 March, 1997.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA607444

Entities

People

  • Charles P. Marsh
  • Vince Hock

Organizations

  • Engineer Research and Development Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Cathodic Protection
  • Data Acquisition
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Sets
  • Data Storage Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Security
  • Inspection
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Storage Tanks
  • Transducers

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering.
  • Facility/Structural Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomy