Resources How to Tender Tender Articles Tender Sectors Tender News

‘Robotic crawler’ to inspect city’s underground pipes

The city has introduced a new way of preventing costly and recurring blockages of its sewerage systems with a new “robotic crawler”, costing R2.4 million, that will be used to inspect underground pipes. The remote-controlled device relayed CCTV footage from its subterranean vantage point to a mobile monitoring facility above ground, Mayco member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said yesterday when he introduced the crawler at the city’s Water Technical Operations Centre (WTOC) in Bellville, where the robot’s operators demonstrated its functions. Sonnenberg said the crawler was a sophisticated piece of equipment that allowed operators to see inside the sewerage system. “This investment will see significant savings in the years to come as the crawler will assist the city in doing proactive maintenance.” Visuals are sent to a laptop.

Deen Williams, a project manager for the crawler tender, said: “All components work together and are dependent on each other, and depending on the size (150cm up to 1m in circumference) of the pipe you are surveying, you will use different combinations of the crawler. The system is waterproof up to one bar pressure.” Explaining the inspection process, he said the affected section of road was blocked off. “You then assemble the camera and crawler and suspend it into the manhole and start recording the contents of the pipe,” Williams said. Through a handheld tablet, one can see the amount of dirt and cracks in a pipe as well as joint displacements. After removing the camera via remote control, data can be analysed on a laptop inside the van, he said.

“The handheld tablet controller allows its operator to control every function of the camera and to move its vision in any direction, as well as starting and stopping to record,” Williams said. Gavin Nunn, who also operated the crawler, said the IPEK company in Germany manufactured the CCTV pipeline inspection equipment (robotic crawler) and he was its distributor in South Africa.

Source: www.iol.co.za

BACK TO NEWS

‘Robotic crawler’ to inspect city’s underground pipes

Latest News