Project description
Robots to inspect Europe’s sewers
Europe has an estimated 3.2 million kilometres of sewers, which are primarily inspected through human analysis of CCTV footage. However, their condition is often unknown, leading to issues such as property flooding and wastewater spills into rivers. The EU-funded PIPEON project aims to develop robotic and AI technologies for autonomous sewer inspection and maintenance. These robust robots can operate in harsh sewer environments, using dexterous manipulators to install flow monitors and remove blockages caused by materials like textiles and grease. Advanced sensors and machine learning algorithms enhance navigation and detection in sewers. This technology will lower inspection costs and enable timely maintenance.
Objective
There are estimated to be 3.2 million km of sewers in Europe. Their inspection technology is based on human analysis of CCTV images. Often condition of sewers is just not known. This leads to failures such as property flooding and wastewater spills via storm sewer overflows into rivers.
PIPEON will develop robotic and AI technologies for autonomous sewer inspection and maintenance.
Robots are rugged-by-design working in the corrosive and abrasive sewer environment. They move over different surfaces, above and within the wastewater. Dexterous manipulators install flow monitors and remove blockages of different sizes made from materials such as textiles, fats and grease. Sensors, sensor fusion and sensor perception ML algorithms for feature and anomaly detection facilitate navigation and mapping in self-similar/featureless sewers and risk-aware mission planning methods reduce the risk of robot failure.
All these tools will be developed with computationally bounded resources so that robots are able to operate for days.
The use of robots automatically determining defect type and size will reduce the cost or inspecting sewer networks by at least one order of magnitude if not more.
The reduction in cost “floods” water utilities with data and allows delivers the right maintenance at the right time leading to almost “defect-free” sewer operation. Removing blockages quickly will reduce sewage spills into rivers by an estimated 30% of current numbers. This will intelligently enhance protection of Europe’s rivers and meet Europe’s zero-pollution ambitions in a sustainable, climate friendly way.
The team includes scientists from leading European research groups in robotics, in-pipe sensing, mapping, manipulation and the modelling and management of sewer networks. Leading SMEs in the areas of AI based sewer data analysis, and robotics bring knowledge of exploitation pathways. Three water utilities bring case study networks and knowledge of practical application.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes wastewater treatment processes
- engineering and technology materials engineering textiles
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.4.5 - Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2024-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
12616 Tallinn
Estonia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.