UAV-based pipeline inspection system with Swin Transformer for the EAST

The regular inspection of pipelines is not only a requirement to ensure the stable operation of the EAST, but also a strict safety regulation to decrease the probability of accidents caused by gas or liquid leakage. The main issues facing manual inspection are the length of the pipeline, inaccessible areas, and hazardous scenarios, which makes this task extremely difficult and time-consuming. This paper proposes a UAV inspection system for pipeline inspection missions. Loose bolts within a given pipeline are used as detection objects during experimentation to create a dataset and conduct further analysis on the accuracy of the loose-bolt detection with Swin Transformer. The results verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the UAV pipeline inspection system in terms of loose-bolt detection. The UAV inspection system proposed in this study can provide useful reference value and guidance for the regular inspection of the EAST or other pipeline inspection missions.