AI Robots Monitoring Sewers Will Save Society Millions

- The latest computer vision and AI algorithms we are researching enable the automation of complex tasks. Based on our experience from other research projects, we expect to be able to automatically find errors in the sewer network based on the sensor data that the new robot will deliver, says Thomas Moeslund, Professor at Aalborg University.

Water suppliers do not have the capability to constantly monitor all sewer lines; this means that wear and damage to a pipe are not detected before they become very critical and the pipe must be replaced. The vision is that monitoring sewers with robots be done automatically, and that water suppliers will only have to intervene right before a pipe needs renovation or replacement.

The goal of the project is to automate the entire inspection process. Robots must be put down in the sewers to collect data on the pipes, and computer algorithms will then analyse the data to find irregularities in the pipes.

The main objective is to minimize the costs to water suppliers on their sewage networks, but in addition, the project can also lead to increased profits from exports for the companies involved because sewage networks the world over are experiencing the same challenges as Denmark.