These works are noisy, dirty and cause a lot of inconveniences.
They also cost around 5.5 billion a year.
It doesnt have to be this way.
We are developing small robots to work in underground pipe networks, in both clean water and sewers.
If we cannot communicate with them, we cannot stay in control.
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The underground pipe networks are complex, varied, and difficult to work in.
There are many pipe sizes, made of different materials, placed at many different depths.
They are connected in lots of different configurations and filled to different extents with different contents.
Pipebotsis a large UK government-funded project working on robots that will help maintain the pipe system.
These robots will come in different sizes, depending on the pipes they are in.
They will operate autonomously, thanks to the array of sensors onboard.
They will have an ultrasound andinfrared distance sensorsto help them navigate the pipes.
One of the biggest challenges will be making them communicate with each other through the pipes.
The three main options we are exploring are radio waves, sound waves, and light.
Each of these work at a different frequency and have different bandwidths.
Thankfully, sewer pipes look a lot like tunnels to radio waves at least when theyre relatively empty.
Water blocks radio waves even more than soil and earth.
In fact, at high enough frequencies, it acts as amirror.
Sound and light
Wireless communication methods using sound and light are not widely commercially available yet.
But they are making waves in the research community.
The downside is speakers and microphones can bepower-hungry, and sound does not offer particularly high data rates.
In the video above, the first pipe robot in action.
It wont be a case of picking either radio, sound, or light waves.
We hope to have a full Pipebots system demonstrated in a realistic web connection by 2024.
