In view of the current situation that manual climbing is widely used for rust removal of overhead pipelines,a rigid-flexible coupling rust removal method which could be used for rust removal of overhead pipelines in service was proposed.Its rust removal characteristics were analyzed,the mathematical model of rust removal force was established,and the influencing factors of rust removal force and the problem of rust removal uniformity were analyzed.An automatic rust removal device for overhead pipelines was designed.Finally,a rust removal experimental platform was built,the feasibility of rigid-flexible coupling rust removal method and the effects of spring compression force and relative motion speed on rust removal were studied,and the method was compared with two- way rigid friction rust removal method without spring.The experimental results show that the rigid-flexible coupling rust removal method for overhead pipeline is feasible,which can reach the rust removal grade of St3 and meet the requirements of pipeline rust removal.