Holistic Principal Tunnel-Sewer Survey System (HS3) using Unmanned Aerial vehicle and Artificial Intelligence+Big Data

The survey process of deep principal tunnel-sewers is very tedious, needing sewerage regulation entity be disconnected for 2-months for crucial airing and intercommunication network setup, and survey done by 3-squads for 0.5months (assuming a 4-mile long tunnel), expending 2.5 months in total and over half a million pounds in costs. The environment is also particularly unsafe; it has rodents and other disease-carrying animals and carries harmful solids and chemicals even after airing.

More recently, they have been found to contain traces of Corona virus (BBC 2020). All these make it difficult to conduct the required multiple survey annually of each, causing intermittent collapse, blockages, and particularly incessant leaks and associated pollution episodes.

Pollution episodes from leaks are big and frequent because there are over 3,500 deep principal tunnel-sewers, to which the over 400,000 miles of sewers are connected to, and from which sewage is transported to treatment stations. The leaks have led to pollution of more than 50% of UK rivers and rising (Environment Agency, 2018). The penalty fee for such leaks are usually huge and hard hitting on revenue, causing tunnel owners to be desperate for alternative survey methods.

A popular case is that of Thames Water that was given a £20 million penalty significant and avoidable pollution episodes on the River Thames in 2017 (Environment Agency, 2017). Avoidance comes mainly through frequent surveys that begets quick intervention.

Thus, an unmet market need exists for a highly productive (quicker, cheaper and safer) survey system that will engender frequent tunnel-sewers surveys. This project will thus develop a holistic Tunnel-sewer survey system (HS3) that includes a tunnel survey-specific unmanned aerial vehicle (T-suv) and artificial intelligence classification models (AI-CM) that will analyse T-suv's videos for fault-classification and survey reports production.

At 2-miles per hour T-suv will produce survey videos of a typical Tunnel-sewer system of circa 4-miles length in 2 hours. HS3's AI-CM will analyse the generated survey videos and produce fault reports in circa 30 minutes.