It was not immediately clear if the 1986 examination used a "smart pig."

This can, as the name suggests, contains the electronics or "brains" of the smart pig.

He's an accurate, polite, smart pig, who even notices a hair amiss.

But after a major spill in March along the same network of pipes, the Department of Transportation ordered inspections with the smart pig.

An intelligent pig, or smart pig, includes electronics and sensors that collects various forms of data during the trip through the pipeline.

Other "smart" pigs use electromagnetic acoustic transducers to detect pipe defects.

Intelligent pigs, also called smart pigs, are used to inspect the pipeline with sensors and record the data for later analysis.

More than a month later BP sent a smart pig through its eastern pipelines, detecting extensive corrosion at several places and another small spill.

Is it a very smart pig?

In late July 2006, the "smart pigs" monitoring the pipelines found 16 places where corrosion had thinned pipeline walls.