We’re excited to share an update on the progress of the TUBERS project!

The TUBERS team held a crucial session on September 17th, 2025, with key Dutch Water Companies: BRABANT WATER, EVIDES, and VITENS. The primary goal of this meeting was to gather essential feedback, insights, and the “voice of the customer” to build the official TUBERS Business Plan by the end of next year.

Key Discussion Points

The session focused on reviewing and challenging the core elements necessary for a robust business strategy:

• Problem Addressed: Prioritizing the issues TUBERS needs to solve, such as improving Asset Integrity Management and managing Non-Revenue Water (NRW) & Leak Performance.
• Use Cases: Defining the multiple real-world scenarios where the “Ideal” TUBERS solution must perform successfully.
• “Ideal” Solution: Discussing the necessary performance, boundaries, and overall concept of the final TUBERS robotic system.
• Business Case & Economics: Exploring key financial data and insights for the future solution.
• Prototype vs. Ideal: Comparing the aspirational features of the “Ideal” TUBERS with the capabilities of the first prototype developed as of September 17, 2025

Focus on Asset Integrity

While the project was initiated to address NRW and leakage, the water companies emphasized that the preferred “Problem” is to Advance and Improve the Asset Integrity Management of the pipe network.

Expected success from TUBERS’ implementation includes:

• Extending Pipe Service Life.
• Enabling Condition Based Actions (like RBI) based on new data (VI, NDT) instead of relying solely on calendar or historical statistics.
• Globally increasing the efficiency of intervention and maintenance activities.

Next Steps: Testing and Evaluation

This input session was held just before the crucial first Tests and Evaluation of the TUBERS Prototype, which is planned for November 2025 at a VITENS test installation.

The team is now consolidating all the valuable feedback received. The next strategy session is planned for after the November prototype testing to incorporate “fresh input” and ensure the final business plan reflects real-world performance and validated capabilities.

We appreciate the active participation from BRABANT WATER, EVIDES, and VITENS, and look forward to the next steps in developing this scalable and modular robotic tool for pipeline inspection and repair.