January 2, 2019

UK invests in micro-robots which could make roadworks a thing of the past

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Roadworks may soon be a thing of the past as small robots will be sent down pipes to make repairs instead of digging up roads.

Four universities in the UK are working together to develop a collection of “insect-like” robots that will fix and inspect underground pipes.

The robots, around one centimetre in size, will be able to fly, swim and crawl through pipes used for water, gas and sewage. They will also allow utility companies to make a “Google Maps-style” plan of their pipe networks as the devices travel underground.

The Government has now invested £26.6m in the project, as it hopes the technology will put an end to the disruption caused by 1.5 million road excavations that take place every year. These roadworks cost the country more than £5bn a year in traffic closures and lost business, according to the Government.

The scientists behind the project believe the robots will also be able to tap the pipes to understand their condition, using the sound and vibrations to analysis the quality of the pipe walls. This will mean workmen will not have to examine the exterior of the pipes.

“It is like keyhole surgery for the ground, so instead of cutting up the whole road, send a small robot down a pipe and conduct repairs and inspections,” Professor Kirill Horoshenkov, from the University of Sheffield, told The Daily Telegraph.

The academic, who specialises in acoustics, explains that, as they will be going through dark pipes, fitting them with cameras will not be an option. So instead the robots will use sound to navigate and investigate the pipes, using a system called sonar.

Sonar works by detecting objects through water by emitting sound pulses and then measuring how long it takes for the pulse to come back to the robot. The delay tells the robot how far away it is from the object that the soundwave deflected from.

Keep reading in The Telegraph

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