Scottish Water has worked with partners to turn a surfboard into a state-of-the-art automated inspection device to gather information on the condition of infrastructure vital to the supply of Edinburgh’s drinking water.
The water company recently successfully trialled the unique device - to inspect of a section of the Talla Aqueduct. Called the Platypus due to its shape, the device makes it significantly safer, quicker, easier, and cheaper to detect and analyse cracks and other faults on hard to reach assets.
Previously, inspections of the vital infrastructure, which is buried six metres below ground in places, were much more difficult, requiring teams of inspection engineers and rescue personnel to enter the structure, with additional teams needed on the surface. The inspections, which have been carried out every ten years, involved a team of up to 200 people and hundreds of hours.
The aqueduct also needed to be fully drained in sections for inspection.
The surfboard technology will now be used by Scottish Water to carry out an inspection of the entire 45-km length of the aqueduct. This time round far fewer staff will be needed and the process will be done much more quickly and at less cost and no water will have to be drained at the site.
The Platypus was the brainchild of robotics experts in Australia, Abyss Solutions. The firm had previously developed remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) which gathered high resolution underwater imagery from reservoirs. They adapted this to be able to gather high resolution imagery from above and below the water inside Talla Aqueduct so it could be kept fully operational.
Working with Scottish Water they created the Platypus, which operates as an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). It was developed using a standard surfboard as a platform to support specialist recording equipment. High definition cameras and lighting were fitted along with sensors which steer it along a pre-programmed alignment and redirect it around obstacles.
The Platypus uses sonar, gathering data below water level and a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges above water level. The data generates three-dimensional models of the internal surface which is recorded on the device.
The footage is then passed through software which cleans up the images and is then able to identify and categorise defects within the asset. Once detected, engineers can carry out more detailed inspections and necessary repairs in these areas.
Darragh Hoban, project manager for Scottish Water, said:
“Like all water companies we need to maintain an ongoing understanding of the condition of our assets.
“A number of factors led to us looking at new ways of inspecting the Talla Aqueduct. It is almost entirely below ground and access is mostly through access shafts often in remote locations which increase health and safety risks associated with personnel entry to the aqueduct. By removing the need for personnel entry to the aqueduct, the health and safety risks are substantially reduced and there is no need to interrupt water supply to the water treatment works. ”
The Platypus was recently trialled along a 1.5km long section of the Talla Aqueduct. It was the first time the asset was inspected without the need to physically send operatives into the aqueduct and without having to interrupt the flow of water.
Darragh Hoban added:
“The trial was a huge success with the Platypus providing a safer and less disruptive method of inspection, we are now planning to inspect the remaining part the of aqueduct using the Platypus. Results to date indicate the Platypus ASV approach may also offer solutions for inspection of other similar Scottish Water assets.”