Adaptive Soft Robot for Complex Multiple Scenes: Navigating Pipelines, Valves, and Pressure Vessels

ABSTRACT Pipelines, valves, and pressure vessels (PVs) are vital components in nuclear, thermal power, and chemical systems, operating under high temperature and pressure over extended periods, leading to safety risks. Ensuring their safe operation requires regular inspections, which current robotic systems cannot fully address due to the diverse and challenging environments. To address this need, we propose a robotic system featuring a narrow‐waist spring torso, airbag foot supports, and ducted‐fan‐based negative‐pressure adhesion. The robot exhibits three key features: First, the narrow‐waist spring torso enables extensive telescopic and multi‐directional bending deformation, allowing it to navigate sharp turns and bypass neck edges within stop valves. Second, the airbags offer exceptional passive compliance and large deformation capacity, adapting to significant size variations and shape changes within valve cavities for reliable anchoring. Third, ducted‐fan‐based negative‐pressure adhesion enables the robot to traverse the inner walls of PVs under poor surface conditions, such as corrosion and scaling. The robot employs a worm‐like creeping motion to adapt to complex internal channels and the varying curvatures of pipelines and PVs. Experimental results demonstrate that the robot can smoothly traverse a DN125 stop valve (with internal diameters ranging from 84 to 125 mm) and transition between pipelines and PVs. The robot is capable of operating across multiple scenes, adapting to curvature radii ranging from 55.5 mm to infinity and accommodating bosses, shape changes and size variations. This robotic system provides a valuable reference for designing non‐disassembly internal inspection robots in gas and liquid transport systems, enhancing safety and reliability in high‐temperature and high‐pressure environments.