Pipeline grasping and lifting control technology for underground coal mine pipeline installation robot

Existing underground coal mine pipeline installation equipment mostly adopts manual remote control operation, with inflexible movements and low pipeline handling efficiency. To address this problem, a pipeline installation robot based on binocular vision and grasp-release trajectory planning was designed to achieve automatic pipeline recognition and grasping and placing. The kinematic model of the manipulator of the pipeline installation robot was established and solved using the DH method, and the transformation matrices of the binocular camera and the gripper relative to the base coordinate system of the robot manipulator were derived. The hue, saturation, and brightness ranges of the pipelines to be recognized were determined through experiments. A simulated underground coal mine tunneling working-face environment was constructed, and experimental tests of the pipeline installation robot were carried out. The results showed that the robot realized automatic recognition, grasping, and installation of underground pipelines. The maximum deviation between the measured and theoretical values of the gripper coordinates was within 40 mm, and the maximum deviations of yaw, pitch, and roll angles were within 1°, meeting the pipeline positioning accuracy requirements. Moreover, the time required for pipeline grasping, lifting, and installation was greatly shortened compared with the manual method, and the installation efficiency was significantly improved.