AX-1 — the first autonomous inspection crawler purpose-built for insulated cast iron pipelines in oil & gas and industrial environments.
Autonomous Pipeline Inspection Platform
The AX-1 is a ruggedised 4WD autonomous crawler designed to traverse DN100 cast iron pipelines under live operating conditions. Spring-loaded wheel assemblies provide constant gripping force through aluminium cladding on inclines up to 30° and full vertical risers. The articulated chassis hinge enables navigation through 90° and 45° elbows without requiring pipeline shutdown or insulation removal.
Visual · Thermal · Acoustic — Simultaneous
The sensor head mounts directly to the AX-1 chassis and captures all three modalities simultaneously — visual, thermal, and acoustic — feeding independent AI modules running in parallel on the Jetson Orin NX. Every sensor reading is stamped with Segment ID and precise pipe distance for full spatial traceability.
Dashboard · Reports · Digital Twin · CMMS Integration
The platform handles everything from raw sensor data to boardroom-ready inspection reports. Upload completes in under 30 minutes. Every pipe segment builds a living digital twin — tracking material grade, operating conditions, defect history, and remaining-useful-life estimates across all inspection runs.
Open-Source Software Stack
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| ROS 2 Humble | Robot middleware, sensor topic bus |
| OpenCV 4.x | Visual crack and corrosion detection |
| PyTorch / TensorRT | CNN vision model + Jetson inference |
| Mosquitto MQTT | Lightweight sensor data broker |
| Node-RED | Cloud pipeline and dashboard wiring |
| Gazebo Harmonic | Digital twin physics simulation |