The Department of Energy (DOE) is currently in the process of decommissioning and dismantling many of its nuclear materials processing facilities that have been in use for several decades. Site managers throughout the DOE complex must employ the safest and most cost effective means to characterize, remediate and recycle or dispose of hundreds of miles of potentially contaminated piping and duct work. The DOE discovered that standard characterization methods were inadequate for its pipes, drains, and ducts because many of the systems are buried or encased. In response to the DOE`s need for a more specialized characterization technique, Science and Engineering Associates, Inc. (SEA) developed the Pipe Explorer{trademark} system through a DOE Office of Science and Technology (OST) contract administered through the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC). The purpose of this report is to serve as a comprehensive overview of all phases of the Pipe Explorer{trademark} development project. The report is divided into 6 sections. Section 2 of the report provides an overview of the Pipe Explorer{trademark} system, including the operating principles of using an inverting membrane to tow sensors into pipes. The basic components of the characterization system are also described. Descriptions of the various deployment systems are given in Section 3 along with descriptions of the capabilities of the deployment systems. During the course of the development project 7 types of survey instruments were demonstrated with the Pipe Explorer{trademark} and are a part of the basic toolbox of instruments available for use with the system. These survey tools are described in Section 4 along with their typical performance specifications. The 4 demonstrations of the system are described chronologically in Section 5. The report concludes with a summary of the history, status, and future of the Pipe Explorer{trademark} system in Section 6.