Aqueducts - Tunnels - Culverts
With nearly twenty years of experience inspecting remote and difficult to reach places in tanks with ROVs - we've built on that in recent years and now have increasing project experience with remote inspections of Aqueducts, Tunnels, Pipe-Tunnels and Culverts.
We've seen rapid development of both the options and capability for data capture with different sensor platforms being developed and also with the data collation and output capability.
Long range flow through
We recently carried out our biggest remote, autonomous and digital aqueduct inspection to date after signing the contract with Scottish Water for the final phase of the full Talla Aqueduct remote inspection.
Working with our partners, Abyss Solutions, and following two years of trials and planning we completed the main data gathering phase of this comprehensive digital inspection in October 2021.
We have a range of less complex floating platforms we can use - but the Platypus is certainly the Ferrari option.
Performance
With LiDAR above the water and Sonar below the water, the Platypus platform carries lighting and 6 cameras for detailed 360 degree images of walls, floor and ceiling. The Platypus self centres with laser navigation off the walls and has motors for forwards and backwards motion to counter-act variations in flow on different sections of the asset.
This short clip shows the Platypus in action in the Talla Aqueduct.
Dry tunnels
Not every tunnel or culvert that needs inspection has water running through it. So when it isn't straight forward to walk in and we can't float a platform through it - we fly!
Tunnels and culverts are the most common application request we get for our confined space drone service and we have now done a number of different inspections in this type of asset.
This clip gives an overview of one of those.
Hear from a client
One of our earliest projects with the Confined Space Drone was to provide a general condition assessment of 2 pipe tunnels and a culvert at South East Water treatment plant.
Colin Hawkins talks us through the requirement and what he sees as the advantages of using this type of platform.
Digital data output
Sometimes video or pictures is all that is needed for our clients inspection requirements.
If, however, you are needing to accurately measure part of an asset that you can't otherwise get to safely then a digital 3D model can be created using LiDAR or photogrammetry.
This short clip shows a 3D model of a pipe tunnel using photogrammetry on footage taken with the confined space drone.
Mentioned in Scottish Government Annual report
Click here to see a short extract from the 2020 "Scotland: The Hydro Nation Annual Report" presented to the Scottish Parliament in November 2020 which included our work with Scottish Water and Abyss as one of only five articles about Scottish Water activities that year.
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