Meet PIPE-i, the robotic survey vehicle on a mission

Originally posted on Newsroom  

In a tight or dangerous spot when inspecting infrastructure, who’re you going to call? In an example of innovation in action, PIPE-i is the go-anywhere, all-seeing, all-recording answer.

Hidden from view beneath our streets, along our roads, between residential areas, and within industrial and urban zones is the crucial infrastructure we depend on.

Culverts, pipes and tunnels transport essential resources, much like an intravenous system, ensuring our communities remain active, well-hydrated, clean, and thriving.

A large portion of New Zealand’s infrastructure is becoming outdated, and urgently needs investment for upkeep, renovation, and replacement. These critical facilities require frequent inspections and occasional surveys to guarantee their safety and ongoing functionality.

Despite the current tough economic conditions, it remains essential to keep inspecting critical assets. Nevertheless, these frequently inaccessible assets can degrade over time and become hazardous, presenting considerable health and safety dangers to engineers and surveyors. 

The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in developing innovative and cost-effective solutions, that deliver tangible community benefits through greater efficiency and improved asset management, and which keep our people safe.

That’s where technology like PIPE-i comes in.
 

Meet PIPE-i

PIPE-i is a six-wheeled robotic vehicle designed to survey and inspect hard-to-reach places such as culverts, pipes and tunnels. It enhances data collection with all-terrain 3D scanning and 360-degree photo capture, providing consistent, repeatable results in a digital format, meaning better decisions can be made, all with minimal human risk.

How PIPE-i came to be

The genesis for PIPE-i came when surveyors were called in to inspect a severely cracked and deformed culvert beneath a busy highway in the Bay of Plenty. The culvert was in such poor condition that it was not safe for the surveyor to enter to take accurate measurements with a 3D scanner.

The team needed a way to get the 3D scanner into the culvert and operate it from a place of safety. They needed a robot, or something like it, to get into places that a human couldn’t. The problem was that such equipment wasn’t available off the shelf, and it had to be designed and developed from scratch using a 3D printer.

First developed in 2020, the initial version of PIPE-i was very basic and pulled by a rope. Motors were then added to make it remote-controlled with a live camera feed incorporated for real-time tracking.

With each iteration of PIPE-i, new tech components and sensors were added to improve its functionality. The camera was soon complemented by an upgraded 3D scanner, LED light arrays, and other high-tech sensors. After it started to show some potential, the team applied for funding through an internal Beca innovation incubator to develop PIPE-i into its current form.

As a senior associate surveyor, I’ve always been passionate about innovation and creating things—from building radio-controlled cars and gadgets to designing and modelling components for 3D printing.

When the idea for PIPE-i arose, it inspired me to merge my love for innovation with my surveying work, enhance the safety of those around me, and help create more accurate outcomes for asset owners and managers.
 

Compact technology

Onboard PIPE-i is the smallest 3D scanner on the market, the Leica BLK360 Generation 2. Safely housed in a protected cargo area, it deploys as needed. Measuring 680,000 points per second, the scanner captures millions of accurate measurable points during a full survey, creating a complete spatial representation of the asset.

PIPE-i’s brain is a Raspberry Pi companion computer running a Robot Operating System. This helps it to understand, communicate and interact with the world around it. The robot features an onboard autopilot module, enabling navigation and autonomous capabilities.

With an adjustable height between 200mm and 500mm, PIPE-i is able to maintain elevation and navigate through moderately flowing culverts and minimise its profile when operating in environments where there isn’t much head room, such as underfloor spaces. The information collected can be used to provide a virtual digital twin, or visual representation, of the structure.

Watch PIPE-I in action:

Digital innovation and transformation

Digital innovation like PIPE-i combines deep engineering expertise and the application of robotics, computer vision and artificial intelligence to deliver impactful, high-quality outputs, in a safer and faster manner.

Disruption is a common factor within digital transformation projects, especially with the growing use of artificial intelligence across many industries.

Sam Fielden, commercial manager, digital, at Beca “enjoys the thrill of applying AI in our business.

“The number of emerging technologies is multiplying at an exciting if not scary rate, with the potential to make big impacts for us and our clients.”

With innovation, we are very conscious of the desirability, feasibility, and viability of a given idea or technology. This involves checking that the innovation addresses a genuine client need, can be developed, operated and maintained effectively, and that the financials stack up. 

“Digital transformation projects are not always centred on, or exclusively pursuing cost efficiency. In many cases, the application of innovative technologies like PIPE-i has the goal of creating efficiency, quality or safety outcomes. We do not always expect a transformed service to be cheaper, but we would expect it to deliver a better outcome,” says Sam.
 

What’s next for PIPE-i

Technology like PIPE-i has the potential to greatly improve confined space surveying, offering safer, more economical and more accurate solutions for gathering data in, on, and around critical infrastructure assets.

The future of this particular little robot lies in automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning. With the potential for automated workflows, autonomous operation and automated data collection and analysis.

Clients have expressed interest in higher resolution imagery – for instance being able to identify cracks one millimetre in width – and so we will look to find the balance between a lightweight and agile robot and innovative technology.

As we look ahead more broadly, the utilisation of technology and digital innovation in surveying, and asset management, is only going to increase. Asset owners and operators are looking for more efficient and cost-effective solutions, and surveyors and engineers are rising to the challenge, combining their expertise with digital transformation to address real-world challenges.