Scottish water is attaching lasers to bespoke drones and sending them down sewers to monitor conditions – reaching parts of the network that traditional surveying methods can’t reach.
It is believed to be the first time that drones and lasers have been used together like this in the UK.
Teams of up to 15 workers are replaced by just two operatives using drone and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning. The result, says Scottish water, is more accurate and lower cost surveys.
The initiative is a collaboration between Scottish Water, alliance partner Caledonia Water Alliance (Morrison Utility Services and Aecom), trenchless specialist Environmental Techniques and drone manufacturer Good Friday Robotics.
The adapted technology was used for the first time on a large brick sewer in Bath Street in Glasgow city centre in July and has now been approved for roll-out at other locations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and some rural areas.
The drones are adapted specifically for sewers and are made of carbon fibre to reduce their weight and extend battery life.
Scottish Water’s risk and life cycle planning manager, Iain Jones, said: “This is the first time we’ve used drones adapted for sewers and LiDAR together for sewer surveys and we are really excited about it.
“We want to improve the accuracy of our surveys and, for safety reasons, we want to reduce the number of workers needed to carry out survey work inside sewers. The drone does both and they will also help us in our aim to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
“Factors such as depth, flows and debris can significantly slow down a worker entry survey in a way that does not affect the drones. Because of the reduction in the number of workers involved, a large number of site vans and vehicle deliveries are not required and so carbon emissions are reduced.”
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