Smart “PIGs” in Pipes (MS)

In these lessons, students will learn about smart “PIGs” in pipes and their working principles. After these lessons, students are expected to have basic knowledge on pipes used in water and wastewater transportation and smart PIGs for pipe inspection. Problems being studied include but not limited to 1) pipe damages may be generated by different conditions; 2) different types of pipe damages; 3) how a simple smart pig works; 4) how to construct a “camera” based smart pig using provided DIY robot pieces; and 5) how to use the images obtained from the robot camera to develop a maintenance plan of pipes by analyzing the images.

objectives

• Students will understand how pipes work for transporting water and wastewater.
• Students will describe typical damages pipes suffer under practical use conditions.
• Students will demonstrate how to build and operate a smart PIG using DIY robot and camera to
document pipe damage.

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Topic(s)

Pipe inspection, robotic technology, Smart PIGs

type

Middle school lesson

6-8

Grade(s):

time needed

Time Needed (estimate): Four 50-minute class periods

author

Ying Huang, Brittany Hagen

national next gen standards

• MS-ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to
determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• MS-ETS1-3 Engineering Design: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.

north dakota standards

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