We have been supporting UU on their aqueduct inspection programmes since AMP1, when we designed and built the first pipe Inspection Vehicle (PIV), with a 1km excursion range. We have since carried out tethered surveys up to 4.5km and autonomous surveys (APIV) up to 21km.
The APIV utilised multiple HD cameras and high-intensity LED lights, mounted on miniature pan & tilt heads, which in-turn were attached to robotic manipulator arms that were deployed when the APIV was in the tunnel. The APIV was designed to be self-centring within the tunnel and had on-board multi-cam data storage, an independent power supply, remote control for lights, cameras and pan & tilt head control, to ensure full circumferential viewing was achieved.
Recovery of the APIV from the downstream well chambers was complicated and a challenge in its own right; we had to lift concrete floor sections, thus rendering the area a demarcation zone, position an ‘A’ frame over the open wells and a utilise a recovery device to enable the APIV to be ‘hooked’ from water level. Confined space operatives working in subterranean overspill chambers would ‘catch’ the APIV and attach the recovery device to it before it was lifted 4m to the surface, where the recorded data would be downloaded to hard drives for subsequent viewing.