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In general, inspection routine at power plant industry can be significantly improved by implementing integrated inspection system of which offer various advantages in term of ease of use, reliability, safety, cost and efficiency. Our research center have developed few inspection robots namely MK-01 and LS-01 to inspect boiler header inner surface condition. The robots is specifically designed for inspection of inner surface of boiler header. However, the robots are not suitable for boiler tube inspection due to the size constraint. Later, much smaller robots with magnetic wheels namely ND-01 and ND-02 are developed for boiler tube inspection. In this paper, the design and development of integrated modular borescope guide with acquisition and localization system is presented. The modular borescope guides are able to transverse in 28mm tube with straight, wavy or bended tube arrangement. The guides use spring as passive support and wall press element to overcome buckling effect. The user can manipulate the robot movement and visually inspect the inner tube surface via developed GUI. The embedded localisation system enable the user to pinpoint the exact location of defects inside the boiler tubes. Inspection aspects include checking for cracks, inspecting the coating layer on the inner surface, welded joints, inlet and outlet tubes etc. The testing result on comparing actual distance and distance measured by the encoder shows 0.9% accuracy, of which considered reasonable for the application.

Artificial muscles made of nylon fishing strings can be actuated using heating and cooling or induced electrically or thermally. These nylon fishing strings show promise in replacing the bulky and expensive actuators that are typically used in robotic prosthetic, as they are lightweight and relatively low in cost. The lifespan and performance of these artificial muscles need to be identified for further development in the use of prostheses and artificial muscles. In this research, we conducted experiments, where the nylon strings that have been coils into Super-coiled polymer (SCP) were tested after going through four different conditions of annealing process. these strings are then tested in lab-based rig to be checked for durability and performance. From the result, we discover that using Slow heating slow cooling (SHSC) annealing process makes the artificial muscles become more durable and while the string undergoes Fast heating fast cooling (FHFC), it can exert higher force comparing to other approaches. This result proves to be useful in deciding the most suitable process to prepare the string to obtain the best performance for the use in robotic prosthetic.

Student who intends to pursue bachelor engineering program at Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) must undergo a one-year foundation program. For mechanical (ME) and electrical (EE) engineering students, Physics courses are among the main subjects that they need to take during their foundation study. Physic 1 generally focuses more on mechanical topics, while Physics 2 focuses more on electrical topics. This paper describes the study that was carried out in the engineering foundation programs at UNITEN to see the performance of two different students' groups (ME and EE) taking the same subject. The results from the past four years were analysed. It was found that, for Physics 1, there is no significant different between mechanical engineering and electrical students (t(636)=−1.044, p=.297 >0.05). Similarly for Physics 2, no significant different was also found ((596)=−1.929, p=.054 >0.05). This finding provides a new insight on and ongoing process to improve the teaching and learning approach for Physic courses.

This thesis reports the process of design and development of a low cost small sized in-pipe inspection robot. Problem of a pipe inspection operation surfaces when the robot only has a limited coverage of the inner surfaces of the pipe. Moreover, current solutions are largely sized and are not appropriate for smaller sized pipelines. Feasibility study completed produced a set of design requirements to be met for the final design to be able to operate inside a pipeline with inner diameter ranging from 80 mm to 180 mm. The use of magnets was decided as an adhesion system to allow the robot a full range of motion inside the pipe. Technical analyses were completed in parallel with the design work to ensure the design remains up-to-date in case there are changes in the off-the-shelf components used. A prototype of the final design was fabricated. Tests completed successfully demonstrated the robot traversing vertically and upside down on ferromagnetic surfaces, further proving the feasibility of the motor selection analysis. Moreover, the final design prototype managed to successfully satisfy the main objective of the project by being able to fit in a pipe environment with inner diameter ranging from 80 mm to 180 mm.

Usage of robotic technology in power industry applications is gaining a lot of interest. Current method of using borescope for inspection by Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the main electricity utility company in Malaysia has several limitations. The usage and development of inspection robot should be expanded to overcome the limitations. Thus, this paper presents the design and development of a small boiler tube inspection robot that is capable of operating in boiler tube with nominal diameter of 1 inch and capable to move in 90° elbow tube. The developed prototype consists of two modules; one for the camera to perform visual inspection and one for the locomotion. Magnetic wheels are adopted to allow vertical movement inside the pipes. Analysis had been done before fabrication and assembly. The final dimensions for the developed inspection robot are 70mm in length, 15mm in height 21mm in width. The total weight of inspection robot is 18g. Different types of tests have been conducted to test the developed prototype. The results obtained show that the inspection robot is fully functional and met the objectives. The prototype is able to move horizontally and vertically steadily. It is also capable to move in 90° elbow tube. More flexible wiring and locking system for magnetic wheel should be developed for future improvements.

The periodical inspection of boiler header and tube is considered important to avoid power plant shutdown due to failures caused by degradation, creep, corrosion, thermo-mechanical loading and others. The boiler header inspection robots developed by our research center, namely “MK-02” and “LS-01”, are only able to inspect the boiler header but unable to travel in and examine the boiler tube condition. This paper introduces a boiler tube inspection robot with magnetic wheeled which is able to inspect the inner surface of 45 mm ferromagnetic tube. The detailed design and analysis of Boiler Tube Inspection Robot “ND-01”are presented. The experimental results proved that the proposed system was able to work efficiently. With further research, the proposed design is expected to improve the inspection of boiler tube or small pipe efficiency.

Currently, the methods of actuating robotic-based prosthetic limbs are moving away from bulky actuators to more fluid materials such as artificial muscles. The main disadvantages of these artificial muscles are their high cost of manufacturing, low-force generation, cumbersome and complex controls. A recent discovery into using super coiled polymer (SCP) proved to have low manufacturing costs, high force generation, compact and simple controls. Nevertheless, the non-linear controls still exists due to the nature of heat-based actuation, which is hysteresis. This makes position control difficult. Using electrically conductive devices allows for very quick heating, but not quick cooling. This research tries to solve the problem by using peltier devices, which can effectively heat and cool the SCP, hence giving way to a more precise control. The peltier device does not actively introduce more energy to a volume of space, which the coiled heating does; instead, it acts as a heat pump. Experiments were conducted to test the feasibility of using peltier as an actuating method on different diameters of nylon fishing strings. Based on these experiments, the performance characteristics of the strings were plotted, which could be used to control the actuation of the string efficiently in the future.

Boiler header is the backbone of piping system inside thermal power plant which is used to tie multiple steam mains to one boiler. It is important to check the header for any signs of defects. This paper presents an image based approach to detect cracks and corrosions inside a boiler header using LabVIEW software. After an image of the boiler header inner wall is captured, thresholding technique is applied to manage background variation of the acquired image. Then, the boundaries of the corroded area are identified by using edge detection algorithm. The last step is to apply particle analysis for parameters measurement. Experiments are carried out on a 360° view of a cross-section of a boiler header for inspecting the surface defects of the boiler headers. The result from the experiment shows a reasonable success rate of correctly identifying corrosion inside the header.

This paper describes the continuous quality improvement (CQI) process plan that was developed and implemented by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DME), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Malaysia for its Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Programme. The plan is part of the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) system that is required by the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) of Malaysia. DME has implemented OBE approach in the programme for the past 3 years. Throughout the implementation process, the Department has developed ongoing assessment and CQI plan to measure the outcomes and improve the teaching and learning process. This plan, which was first implemented at the end of 2006, has generally shown a positive trend in the teaching and learning process in the programme. This paper also discusses the assessment tools that are used in the continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan. Assessment is one of the important parts in the CQI plan. Direct and indirect measurement methods are used to gather the data which are to be analysed to measure the outcome attainment. The attainment results are used to identify the areas that need to be improved. The assessment plan has been continuously improved to be more effective in measuring the achievement of the OBE implementation in the department.