Project Summary
The water management industry is deeply affected by its construction inconsistencies. Specifically, new water pipes coexist with the older distribution system dating back 50 years. As a result, failures occur, and water leakages emerge. Yet, water leakage problems are challenging and difficult to contain or manage effectively.
Per year, there is a 20% average loss of treated water globally. So, assuming that leakages are left unattended, they can result in around 31.5 million m3/year of water loss and €16 million in revenue. At the same time, processing water and wastewater is energy-intensive and accounts for around 40% of municipal energy use, commonly produced by burning fossil fuels with carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions of up to 5%. Thus, a definitive solution should be found regarding problems with groundwater management, source water protection, and the treatment of existing and new wastewater.
Objectives
- Upgrade the snake-like resident robot and implement the necessary navigation software for autonomous operation over long distances and effective negotiation of pipeline features such as junctions and bends.
- Develop a modular soft-robotic platform with a locomotion mechanism and a novel mechanism capable of inspecting and repairing pipe segments from the inside.
- Research and develop a high-accuracy ultrasonic inspection system and the respective interpretation modules that can detect leaks and, most importantly, measure wall thickness loss.
- Research and develop a Decision Support System powered by Explainable Machine Learning algorithms for holistic inspection and maintenance planning.
Technologies

Resident Snake-like Robot
- Modular design for extended functionality
- Accurate water network navigation
- Continuous pipeline scanning

Decision Support System (DSS)
- Assistance with the decision-making process of inspection and maintenance scheduling
- Structural defect identification
- Data logging and archiving

Soft-robotic modular Robot
- Accurate detection of leaks
- Novel repair deployment mechanism for pipeline repairs

Base Station
- Provision of resident robot charging
- Wireless data exchange between resident robot and DSS
- Retrieval and delivery of mission plans
