MIT grad on Forbes 30 Under 30 made a robot to detect water pipe leaks

You Wu

• MIT graduate You Wu has developed a robot that can find
  leaks in water pipes.
• The robot finds leaks by detecting suction forces,
  unlike other methods that rely on listening to leaks.
• Wu, 28, was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for
  manufacturing and industry, and he founded the company
  WatchTower Robotics with his college friend earlier this
  year. 

When You Wu was growing up in China, officials would shut off
water to his community for half a day each week in the name of
conservation. The experience contributed to Wu’s interest in the
scarcity of water, which he chose to study more in-depth after
moving to the United States 10 years ago. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, now 28, has
developed a robot that can find leaks in water pipes. As the
robot moves with the water through a pipe, its “hands” touch the
pipe and feel the suction forces caused by leaks, Wu told
Business Insider.

It took Wu five years to create a working prototype. The current
version, Lighthouse, was released in January, shortly after Wu
was named to the 2018 edition of
Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Wu and his college friend, Tyler
Mantel, are now working to grow their business with support from
the
Techstars sustainability accelerator. They co-founded the
company WatchTower
Robotics in June.

The
2017 Infrastructure Report Card estimates that there are
240,000 water main breaks in the United States each year,
equivalent to wasting more than 2 trillion gallons of treated
drinking water annually. About 20% of clean water worldwide is
lost daily. 

Many leak detection methods are already available on the market,
but these options rely on listening to sounds caused by pipe
vibrations and pressure reduction. Focusing on acoustics does not
work well in cities due to noise levels, Wu said, but his
Lighthouse robot is effective in both cities and suburban
areas. 

The robot can inspect pipes without interrupting the water
service, and it can be put into hydrants and T junctions. From
there, an analytics system creates a map that tells pipe
operators where the leaks are, how large they are, and what the
probability of catastrophic failure is.

So far, the robots have been tested in Saudi Arabia, Virginia,
and the United Kingdom. WatchTower Robotics is also conducting
pilot programs in Massachusetts with the Cambridge Water
Department and in Australia with pipeline service company
Detection Services.

“My eventual goal is to put our robotic tools into the hands of
field technicians in every single city around the world so that
every single city in the world can have less water loss due to
leaks and support more population growth,” Wu said.