Amount awarded: £1,615,325
Led by: Northumbrian Water
Partners: Environmental Monitoring Solutions Ltd, Gateshead Council, Jet Aire, Minicam Group, Newcastle City Council, Southern Water, Sunderland City Council, Thames Water, University of Sheffield
Pipebot Patrol will develop an autonomous sewer robot that lives in the sewer, constantly inspecting and raising alerts to the precise location of blockages, as they are beginning to form. This proactive approach allows maintenance teams enough time to react before sewer flooding occurs, keeping sewage where it belongs.
“This funding allows us to progress robotic solutions to monitor sewers and minimise the possibility of sewer flooding to customer properties and environmental impact. Combining robotics, autonomy and acoustics with smart-sewer networks, we’re developing new tools for water companies to meet our performance commitments to reduce sewer flooding.” – Richard Warneford, Wastewater Director, Northumbrian Water Group
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The Pipebot Patrol project is making great progress in its preliminary phase, we are on track to achieve the objectives outlined in our project bid. At the Innovation Festival, we conducted an accelerator sprint that provided us with invaluable insights, giving us a clearer understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. We engaged with our customer base during the festival and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. With their continued support, we will strive to deliver on our promises and ensure the success of this initiative. This has allowed us to refine our approach by reallocating tasks to make them more measurable and achievable, further enhancing the efficiency of the project. While we’ve made a slight adjustment to the project timeline to optimize our process, we’re more confident than ever in our ability to deliver the project successfully. The project team is committed to achieving our goals, and we’re excited about the positive impact this project will have.
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