Development of a posture measuring instrument for submarine pipeline based on flange bolt hole positioning

Abstract The measurement of pose parameters between pipes is a key step in the flange tie-back operation of deep-sea pipelines. In this paper, according to the research status of subsea pipeline relative pose measurement engineering and combined with the actual engineering requirements, a kind of subsea two-pipe measurement instrument based on flange bolt hole positioning is developed based on the drawstring measurement method, which aims to meet the measurement accuracy index and realize the measurement of all parameters in one launch. Based on the theory of pose transformation in robotics and the idea of transition matrix, the paper deduces a formula algorithm for calculating the pose parameters between pipelines. Based on the error theory, the error transfer relationship between measurement data error and pose parameter error was analyzed, and the specific influence of relative error of each measurement data on the relative error of pose parameter was analyzed. Based on the overall scheme of submarine pipeline measuring instrument, the experimental prototype of pipeline measuring system is processed and the land experiment is carried out, so as to verify the measuring accuracy of the measuring device and the correctness of the solving algorithm of the device.