ABSTRACT
In 1950s, pipeline running accidents occur frequently. Under the circumstances, people attached great importance to the pipeline inspection and maintenance, especially people in Europe and America and other developed countries. The early research on pipeline robot is about some clean-up and testing of long-distance pipeline which gain lots of achievements. The most representative is called “pipeline pig” which is non-powered equipment which can do some clean-up and testing work. It’s generally believed that the pipeline pig is the origin of the pipeline robot.
