These robots travel through underground pipes to help fix blockages

• Small robots called 'Pipebots' could work in underground pipe networks- in both clean water and sewers.
• Pipebots will be able to operate autonomously and could reduce some of the costly hassle associated with excavating a series of trenches.
• The robots are being developed so they will be able to communicate with each other - making them collaborative.

Did you know that the U.S. alone has an infrastructure system of over 2 million miles of underground pipes? And this figure only accounts for those pipes that provide dependable, clean water. You can imagine the scale of pipework when taking into consideration sewerage and gas pipes, too.

Additionally, a water main breaks every two minutes, losing the U.S. an estimated six billion gallons of treated water daily, according to a report card as recent as 2021. That's enough to fill almost 12 million average-sized bathtubs.