00:00My name is Kirill Khoroshenkov. I'm professor of acoustics at the University of Sheffield and I
00:23lead the PIBOTS team. PIBOTS is a six-year program grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences
00:33Research Council. It aims to develop a new sensing and robotic technology to be deployed in millions
00:41of kilometers of buried pipes. PIBOTS is a collaboration between four universities, the
00:48University of Sheffield, the University of Leeds, the University of Birmingham and the University of Bristol.
00:53We're also supported by all key major water utilities in the UK and their subcontractors.
01:04The program grant scheme run by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is a great
01:12scheme to use to solve the problem of PIBOTS. And the reason for this is because PIBOTS consists of
01:18quite a number of research challenges which needs to be solved together. And these challenges are to
01:24develop novel ways of sensing, small enough robots to go into the pipes, robust enough to stay in the
01:32pipes undamaged, so clever enough to control themselves through the autonomous control algorithms,
01:39knowing where they are through the advanced navigation technologies, and be able to communicate
01:45to each other and above ground. Also, the amount of data which these robots can produce is likely to be
01:53massive, so therefore we need the algorithms like machine learning and artificial intelligence,
01:58which can deal with this data. So bringing all this together required an orchestrated program grant
02:05and the big enough funding, which can bring all the researchers together, which address all these issues collaboratively.
02:11When PIBOTS was announced, that was actually 31st of December 2018, we arranged a launch event
02:26in the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is a beautiful spot. In response to this, we had about 100
02:32participants from the AK and from OSAs who represented the water industry, their subcontractors,
02:39researchers, and academia who are interested in this kind of research. So we use this event also to get
02:47feedback from our end users, and also to do scoping exercise, what problems PIBOTS should solve.
02:53And this information help us to inform the direction of the research.
02:58We organized a series of sprints, which is a short time limited events. So we set up a target for the sprint,
03:13for example, to develop a new robot, or to integrate software on this robot, or to develop new way of
03:22controlling this robot. Our sprints was a fantastic way to bring everybody together to solve a very specific
03:30problem. Also, it was an opportunity to get people to know each other, get people to understand each other's
03:37problems, and also to train researchers to operate a strict deadline. What important things of the sprint
03:43actually saw every single research challenge was demonstrated in this sprint board? It was
03:51developed in the terms of the hardware and software in one single prototype.
04:05It is a really incredible rewarding to me to work in this multidisciplinary project, such as the
04:13PIBOTS. And at the Bristol University, I have been working on the ultrasonic imaging sensing for this
04:21project. Yeah, my role in PIBOTS project involves exploring how mobile sensor data provided better
04:29calibration. And this has expanded my knowledge and skill in simulation and optimization. I've been
04:36involved in leading some of the integration work. We're going to bring bits of work from across the
04:41project together. And it's great seeing everyone's different perspectives on things. But it's also,
04:47you know, an interesting challenge trying to help people work together, people from different cultures,
04:52different personalities, different technical backgrounds. Every six months, we run academic
04:57team meetings where I brought everybody together. We brought PhD students, researchers, technicians,
05:03and academics together in the same room or in the same Zoom space when we had the COVID restrictions.
05:11Each team has a regular meeting to track the progress and to share updates and also to promote
05:18team working. So as a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, I have the opportunity to
05:24work in different projects with PIBOTS. And PIBOTS gave me the opportunity to develop as an early stage
05:31researcher and expand my network, work with other people from other universities. At the same time,
05:38collaborate with industrial partners. Working on the ultrasonic sensing allowed me to
05:45deepen my expertise within this field, especially for the advanced sensing technologies.
05:53I started working on this project as a PhD student maybe six or so years ago. Since when I finished
05:59that project, I became a member of staff working on the project as a researcher. So it's directly
06:05contributed to my career development in that way, but also indirectly the sort of technical and academic
06:12aspects of the project and then be able to publish lots of interesting papers, which is useful for career
06:17progression for the academic side, but also engaging with industry at demonstrations and collaborating
06:24colleagues internally in terms of delivering seminars and things like that mean that I've got some useful
06:29experience for all sorts of lines of work in the future.
06:42One of the most successful industry engagement workshop happened here in this laboratory
06:49called iCare laboratory at the University of Sheffield and that happened in June 2023. This industry workshop attracted about 60 participants from the water industry representing the waste water and clean water sectors.
07:08We use this laboratory space to demonstrate different aspects of the technology and science we developed as a part of PIBOTS.
07:18This includes autonomous robots, new sensing technology, new communication technology,
07:25new navigation and mapping technology to find out where these robots are in the network.
07:31I'm interested in the PIBOTS because it is an alternative solution for finding leaks.
07:36We're always on the lookout for looking at new ideas about how we can find those leaks.
07:42Yeah, so PIBOTS is really interesting for me and I think for the sector as a whole.
07:46I've been involved in tracking the development of PIBOTS since the very early days and I was
07:51involved in that original project so it has a special place in my heart and now it is really about
07:57tracking the developments and understanding the impact that it could potentially have from an innovation
08:02perspective but also the environmental and financial and societal benefits that we will see as a result of a
08:09successful delivery of PIBOTS.
08:11The value of what PIBOTS really offers is they've managed to develop really novel advances in microelectronics,
08:19in communications technologies, in sensors and robotics to provide some really interesting robotic
08:26platforms that can really help to understand and monitor and inspect the pipe network under our feet.
08:34And I think one of the strengths that the program has really had is they've managed to engage really well with
08:38industrial partners on the project, particularly the water and utilities companies who are ultimately going to be the adopters of the technology.
08:46But also they've managed to engage with the public as well through public lectures and social media
08:52to really ensure that the public understand the value of the technologies that they're going to be offering.
08:58And ultimately that will be for both societal and economic benefit.
09:12About three billion litres of water are lost every single day through leaks in England and Wales.
09:19This is according to latest figures from the industry regulator.
09:22To help tackle the problem scientists have developed miniature robots that crawl through
09:28through pipes to patrol our water supply network.
09:31The publicity we managed to get through media channels were absolutely essential to get brand name of PIBOTS out and about.
09:40Subsequently this interest didn't wane out.
09:43So I've been interviewed several times by BBC, by Chinese global television network and by other television networks.
09:53As a result in 2020, we decided to trademark register.
10:00So PIBOTS became a trademark.
10:02So PIBOTS now is used by all UK major water utilities when they refer to robots operating in PIBOTS.
10:13There are two major follow-on grants which emanated from PIBOTS.
10:22These grants are sponsored by the UK OFWAT innovation fund.
10:27One grant is called PIBOTS for rising mains and this is run by Thames Water and Synthetec Limited.
10:34Another grant which is run by Northumbering Water in collaboration with MINICAM.
10:40Major provider of the robotic inspection technology is called PIBOTS Blockage Patrol.
10:47Another project which goes beyond the UK.
10:50So it is a PIBOTS project.
10:52It's funded by European Union Horizon Co.
10:57And this project is led by Technical University of Tallinn.
11:00It is to develop autonomous smart robots to operate in wastewater networks.
11:07We want to avoid service disruption.
11:09And that's the focus of the next program grant which we call FIXBOTS.
11:15And hopefully the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council will support this idea
11:21in the form of the next program grant.
11:23The most important outcome from PIBOTS is to see the implementation of the science technology
11:31in the field.
11:32So to see robots operating in the millions of kilometres of buried pipes in the UK and globally.
11:39It has the potential to be truly transformative.
11:42And that's where we are now in terms of the challenges we face.
11:45We need some of those really truly transformative solutions to come forward.
11:49This could change the way we assess the condition and prioritise investment into our buried infrastructure.
11:56It takes humans away from the need to be going down into dangerous environments.
12:01And it just gives us the insight and the foresight to be able to head off disasters
12:06and to better manage our network so it becomes more resilient in the face of climate change.
12:11So the potential of the PIBOTS and its legacy that it may offer in the future is a really exciting one.
12:18Because by introducing all these new robotic platforms and enabling us to understand and explore
12:24and monitor the pipe network more effectively really can eventually enable us to reduce disruption
12:30of digging up roads to find the problem which actually could offer a lot more benefit not only
12:35to the economy but also to the public in terms of complete uninterruption of their utility services.
12:43One nice future we all can imagine is below us there are millions of buried pipes
12:50which bring clean water to our houses and take waste water from our houses.
12:56We don't see these pipes but they operate nicely smoothly without disruption
13:01and that will be our ideal future which meets the vision of PIBOTS.
