For tracking and locating robots in the pipeline inspection accurately, a wireless adaptive location model was presented to realize the 3D position of robots without the geometrical sizes of pipelines and electromagnetic parameters of ambient medium. Firstly, extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields of pipelines were described by a magnetic dipole model. Then, an adaptive antenna positioning model based on six sensors was proposed and electromagnetic transmitter and receiver circuits were designed.Based on the model,a linear equation containing six unknown numbers was derived and three kinds of algorithms were used to analyze and simulate the equation. Finally, engineering experiments were performed on the pipes with different thicknesses and burial depths. The experiment on a pipe wall thickness of 5.74 mm and burried deep from 0.8 to 0.2 m shows that the average position error is 18.7 cm,which has been decreased by 3.4 cm compared with that of the original model. The results can satisfy the requirements of systems for non-contact, real time and adaptive location.