SIAR: An Autonomous Ground Robot for Sewer Inspection

[Abstract] This paper summarizes the latest advances of the EU Project SIAR-ECHORD++, whose main objective is the design of a new robotic platform for inspecting visitable sewers. The SIAR robot aims to determine the sewer serviceability, to identify critical structural defects, to perform sewer monitoring and eventually to take water or gas samples of the environment. To this end, an autonomous IP67 ground robot equipped with RGB-D sensors and with a powerful wireless communication system is being developed. It is able to perform 3D structure reconstruction in real-time that could be used to detect defects in the sewer structures. This paper presents the key aspects in the design of the platform as well as preliminary experimental results in real sewer systems.This work has been developed under the European project Echord++: European Coordination Hub for Robotics Development++ (FP7-601116) inside the challenge \Utility infrastructures and condition monitoring for sewer network. Robots for the inspection and the clearance of the sewer network in cities"https://doi.org/10.17979/spudc.978849749808