Image: Deep Trekker

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Andrew Ferguson, a Civil Technician with Canadian consulting firm Associated Engineering, has spent his career working on civil linear infrastructure—specifically, pipelines. He says that the effects of climate change are being felt more and more each year and there is almost nowhere that this is more evident than with our pipe and drainage systems. Take flooding events in Toronto, France, and Japan as recent examples.“We classify these major rainfall events as one-, five-, ten-, 50-, and 100-year events. A 50-year event should happen every 50 years.” Unfortunately, according to Ferguson, our increasingly volatile climate has led to these 50- and 100-year events occurring every one or two years. “Not only does this put repeated stress on our infrastructure, but it does not give us enough time to repair and recover.”In addition to extreme weather patterns, our cities are aging. Most non-concrete pipe systems have an expected lifespan of 50-80 years, depending on the materials used. As many urban centres experienced massive growth following the second world war, these vital underground arteries are now reaching maturity across North America. In fact, the Flint water contamination crisis can be traced back to aging lead pipes. Better inspection tools won’t solve such fraught issues themselves, robots or not, but they can be part of a solution.Municipal maintenance isn’t the only sector turning to robots. A large number of oil pipelines in Canada are small-diameter pipes that can’t be easily inspected; indeed, some never have been. The industry is turning now turning to robots to inspect these lines in the hopes of preventing an environmental disaster. Whether it’s keeping a city running or oil flowing, robots can go where people can’t.For this very reason, the future of inspections is likely to continue to turn towards solutions like the Deep Trekker Pipe Crawlers. Their cost and ease of use has made them a viable solution for early-adopting municipalities around the world as well as private corporations in oil and energy, underwater discovery, commercial salvage, and marine survey industries.
