Companies are now starting to use robots when inspecting sewers, considering that sewers are damp and smelly.
“It’s damp, slippery, and dangerous; you have all sorts of rats,” says Hendrik Kolvenbach. So Kolvenbach and his team at the Swiss institute ETH Zurich designed a robot to relieve humans of the task.
The machine that they built is called ANYmal. It has three joints that enable it to wade through water and climb over obstacles. In addition, it has lasers to map 3D spaces, a stereo camera for positioning, and sensors in its feet.
The ANYmal scratches a sewer’s concrete walls assessing, with great accuracy, where repairs are needed. [Source: New Scientist]