Patent ID: 9731334
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: B08B,F16L

Claim:
1. A microbot pigging system for cleaning the interior of a pipe, the system comprising: a. a plurality of microbots, each microbot in said plurality of microbots comprising an automated attachment mechanism that releasably attaches said microbot to at least one other of said plurality of microbots; b. a drive adapted to urge the plurality of microbots through the pipe; and c. a programmable computer processor having computer executable instructions, the computer processor being operatively associated with and thereby controlling one or more of the attachment mechanisms; wherein the computer processor is programmed to instruct at least one of the attachment mechanisms of one or more of the plurality of microbots to attach to at least one other of the plurality of microbots to collectively form a pig within the pipe.