Mitsui Chemical and hibot adopt robotics technology for inspection of industrial infrastructure

Hibot Corp., an innovative robotics start-up pioneering infrastructure maintenance applications, started conducting remote inspection of industrial facilities in Japan with its Float Arm robot. The first inspection in Japan was conducted at the Mitsui Chemical plant in Osaka, and involved the inspection of pipes in structures that are difficult to reach, located about 20m above the ground.

Float Arm is a multi-link manipulator designed especially for inspection and maintenance of infrastructure in narrow, hazardous or confined environments. Due to its internal weight-compensation mechanism, Float Arm is modular, lighter and more compact than other similar devices, and is able to navigate through obstacles in cluttered environments.

In its first inspection mission at the Mitsui Chemical plant in Osaka, Float Arm was assembled on the tip of an aerial platform and brought to the higher sections of a tower. Float Arm acquired 3D scans of the environment and used them to move through gaps between pipes and the structure to obtain images of the pipes in areas that are extremely difficult to inspect without scaffolding in place.