Construction -
a. In front of the Robot is a wiper (1) driven by hydraulic power. This wiper
picks up sludge from the tank deck or tank bottom and passes it into the
crusher and towards the suction of sludge pump (4).
b. The wiper (1) and the crusher is driven by a single hydro motor. The
chain drive drives the dual sprocket gear (2) which in turn drives the
wiper cum conveyor by a chain drive.
c. A safety rated camera (3) is used to view the front of the robot. This also
has a camera front glass washing system.
d. A peristaltic pump (4) or a similar positive sludge pump with high solid
tolerance is mounted on the main platform (6).
e. The entire robot is covered by a top cover plate (7) to protect the robot
from the top.
f. The robot moves on crawler belts (8). The two belts are independently
operated by two separate levers on the control panel.

g. A tail hose (9) connects the robot to the control panel outside the tank.
This contains all the hydraulic hoses, water dosing hose, camera wire
and sludge pumping hose between the robot and control panel outside
the tank. h. The tail hose is connected to the Robot by a valve block. This valve block
has two faces. One face is fitted on the robot and other face is fitted on
the tail hose. This arrangement is for easy assembly and disassembly
between the robot and the tail hose. i. The valve block is connected to the robot by brackets (11). j. The tail hose is resting and moving on castors (12) which is four wheels
at each location, one in each quadrant "of a cross sectional view, to
facilitate easy movement even when the hose is twisting or turning over
to any side. k. The camera front glass is washed by a fixed window washing system.
This system uses three nozzles washing the glass and water is fed by a
pump located outside the control panel. 1. The system uses pressure compensated valve to operate two hydraulic
circuits on a single pressure and tank line. This is to reduce the number
of hydraulic hoses inside the tail hose.
Working
m. The robot moves on the two crawler belts. Each of the crawler belts move independently and is controlled from the control panel outside the tank. This crawler belts are used for the robot to move ahead, behind or turning.
n. The view ahead is picked up by the safety rated camera and is conveyed to the control panel via a wire which passes inside the tail hose. The camera is equipped with a camera front glass washing by water which is served by a single water line common with the dosing pump. This washing is to remove sludge sticking on to the camera front.
o. The wiper wipes the sludge off the tank bottom and moves this sludge by a conveyor system to the crusher.
p. The crusher has stator blades and rotor blades which help to break the sludge into smaller parts, ensuring any solid pieces bigger than a certain size does not enter the pump.

q. The peristaltic pump sucks the sludge from the crusher output and pumps it into the sludge discharge line to the special sludge discharge hose located within the tail hose.
r. All the movements of the pump, wiper and the crawler belts move on hydraulic power provided from a hydraulic power located outside the tank. The power is conveyed by hydraulic hoses between the hydraulic power pack and the tail hose.
s. The tail hose is outfitted with castors to ease the movement of the hose. The hose itself is not powered for movement and is pulled by the robot.
t. There is a dosing water hose providing water at the crusher. This dosing delivers high pressure water and helps the sludge movement easier by reducing its viscosity.
u. The entire control is located outside the crude oil tank on a control panel.
v. The hydraulic power pack is located outside the crude oil tank. The hydraulic power is provided to the robot through the control panel.