Robots detect failures in sewers

Ho Chi Minh City currently has two robots to check the sewer system, sewer . bought from the US for a total of nearly 4 billion VND.

Robots can burrow down the drain and ' see ' every failure, but the budget for this is only 200 million this year.

' Total length of sewer system to be checked in 2010 by robots is about 3km and approval budget for this is 200 million ', Mr. Nguyen Trong Hieu, Deputy Manager of Environmental Management and Services - One-member Limited Company Urban drainage member said.

Check the robot before putting it into the sewer. (Photo: Vo Anh)

Detect every error in the drain

At present, Ho Chi Minh City has two robots examining the sewer system. A robot was purchased in mid-2003, along with specialized vehicles and control systems with a budget of nearly VND 2.4 billion. Then in 2009, Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Company bought a bigger robot for VND 1.4 billion. According to Mr. Hieu: ' If these robots have problems, something must be broken to be repaired to the US '.

In the condition that the sewer is not filled and does not stumble, one day (8 hours) of robots can explore more than 300m of sewer. But if you encounter unfavorable conditions, every day the robot can only check 100-150m of sewer. Before surveying the sewer with a robot, one had to block the flow, not allowing the water to continue to overflow into the sewer and pump out the water to keep the water level below 10cm. ' If higher, water will affect the circuits of the robot,' said one operator.

Robotic construction includes moving wheels, lights, cameras and motors to travel. A generator from the control center located on a dedicated vehicle will power the robot. From the car, the technical staff will control the robot to move and manipulate in the sewer system. All the ' secrets ' in the sewer that the robot 'sees' through its video camera will transfer to two screens in the control center.

Robots can detect every failure in the sewer.

Also rely on the screen that the technician controls the robot to work as desired. When detecting suspicious points in the sewer, the technician will control the robot to slow down, or stop and direct the camera close to suspicious points. Therefore, it can be affirmed that all defects in sewers are exposed to robots as well as technical staff through the screen at the control center. The camera in the robot is designed with two joints (axles) to easily record images at all angles. A small but powerful lighting system mounted on the robot also supports image brightness enhancement for the camera.

Lack of funds to check

Not only does it allow viewing ' live ' images on the scene, the images are also saved to DVD. Thus, people can study the characteristics or failures in the sewer and then make plans to repair and calculate the budget. If you want to repair just measure the site and dig down immediately where you need to repair, avoid the case of spreading peaches.

Mr. Hieu said that in recent years, the city has prioritized to check suspicious sewers with high failures such as old sewer systems, sewer sections located in submerged areas. According to a technician, errors are often detected in the sewer system when inspected: The coupling between the sewer sections is dilated (open) to make the above sand soil fall to the drain. This is one of the causes of "death" holes. Besides the condition of the roots of trees, other types of pipes pierced the sewer line .

With two existing robots, every sewer with a diameter of 300mm or more can check and give accurate results. However, Mr. Hieu also admitted: ' The city's sewer is much, the suspicious situation is very big, while the budget for using robots to check is too small .'

The robot clip goes through the sewer to detect 'death hole'