UK Invests In Micro-Robots To Repair Underground Pipes Without Disrupting Traffic

A micro-robot research project receives 8.9 million dollars investment from the United Kingdoms

Super Tiny Micro-robots

Road workers will soon become the past when micro-robots equipped with navigation systems and sensors can locate and mend cracked pipes without digging, which eliminates traffic jams and roadblocks that cost businesses billions of dollars in damage every year.

Recently, the United Kingdom’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy invested 8.9 million dollars to a micro-robots development project. These robots are believed to have the capability to examine and repair the country’s underground pipes network.

The strategic vision of this project is to save billions of dollars each year for this country and change the way roadworks are carried out around the world.

Pipe Dream

As stated in a government press release, the micro-robots will be developed by a team of researchers from four U.K. universities. They aim to make these one-centimeter micro-robots have the ability to swim, crawl or fly inside the pipes that deliver gas, sewage, and water underneath the U.K. roads.

According to the The Daily Telegraph, Kirill Horoshenkov, one of the researchers of the project from the University of Sheffield, said that two types of robots will be created.

Kirill Horoshenkov

The first type is the “inspection bot”, which can inspect the pipes and navigate independently by using sonar technology. The second kind of robots is called the “worker bot”, whose main job is cleaning pipes using high power jet or fixing pipes with adhesives and cement. This robot will be maneuvered through remote control and has a little bit bigger size than the “inspection bot”.

The researchers of the project believe that these robots will also be able to understand the pipes’ condition by tapping them, using the vibrations and the sounds to analysis the quality of the pipe walls. And humans don't have to check the exterior of the pipes from outside.

Horoshenkov also said very promisingly that, this project will be finished in less than five years.

No More Digging Road

$6.3 billion is the cost of indemnification for business disruptions and traffic closures caused by 1.5 million road excavations every year in the U.K.

Soon, the 8.9 million dollars investment will be offset when these micro-robots are born and put into operation. If successful, U.K. will be the pioneer of the revolution to use robots to replace road workers around the world.

Chris Skidmore, Science Minister of the United Kingdom stated that even though we could only dream of a world where there were no noisy and dirty roadworks at the moment, that dream could be made possible in the near future by the technology started by the pipe-repairing robots.