Robotics and sensing for condition assessment of wastewater pipes

Concrete wastewater pipe networks are crucial for any country's underground infrastructure. Such pipe assets deteriorate over time and may suffer structural failures, mainly as a consequence of microbial-induced corrosion, resulting in losses estimated to be in the billions of dollars per year worldwide. For more than a century, water utilities have been struggling with wastewater pipe inspections due to harsh pipe environments inherent with disease-causing pathogens, toxic gasses, biological materials, and chemical substances. The majority of current inspection technologies have significant limitations as they can be destructive, labor-intensive, and costly, or they may require field inspectors to traverse inside pipes for manual inspections that can pose serious occupational health and safety risks. Therefore, water utilities around the world are looking for innovative technologies that can provide comprehensive condition assessment while being safer, more cost effective, and more efficient. This chapter describes the development of an in-pipe robotic sensing system for inspecting and assessing the condition of concrete wastewater pipe walls.