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Using a Soft, Skirt-Wearing Robot to Detect Water Leaks Before They Spread
Dr. You Wu has designed a flexible, portable device that can prevent water main breaks
By Rain Noe - Nov 20, 2018
Cracks in water pipes start off extremely small, and are thus impossible to detect over many miles of pipes. Over time water does its thing, steadily widening the crack until catastrophe ensues and you have a water main break. If the crack could have been detected when it was still miniscule, it would have been easy, quick and cheap to repair. Cleaning up after a water main break, however, is a messy, prolonged and expensive affair.
Robotics engineer Dr. You Wu spent six years creating something that could solve that problem. Current water leak detecting technology relies on sound, using microphones attached to pipes to listen for changes in water pressure. But that technology only works for relatively large leaks--10 gallons per minute of water or more--and only works in metal, not plastic, pipes.
Dr. Wu's solution can detect leaks of just 1 GPM, coming from cracks as small as 4mm, and in any sort of pipe. His Watchtower Lighthouse Robot is a small, soft shuttlecock that is inserted directly into a pipe and is borne along by the water flow. As it passes a leak, the slight diversion of water tugs on the skirt of the shuttlecock. Soft sensors around the perimeter log the direction of the tug, as well as the shuttlecock's location in 3D space.
Enter a caption (optional)
Enter a caption (optional)The shuttlecock is captured in a waiting net at a T-junction or hydrant further down the line. It wirelessly transmits its data to the operator's computer, and the location of the leak pops up on Google Maps. "No digging is required, and there is no need for any interruption of the water service," Dr. Wu writes.
That news report is from January. Later in the year, the Lighthouse Robot became the U.S. winner of the James Dyson Award:
Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
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By Aart van Bezooijen - Nov 19, 2018
Dutch Design Week 2018 Highlights: Robot Love
Large-scale robots by Jelle de GraafThe Robot Love exhibition was one of this year's visitor magnets at Dutch Design Week, located at a historical factory for dairy production (Campina). The factory was closed down three years ago and is now establishing itself as Eindhoven's newest cultural hotspot. The industrial architecture
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By Rain Noe - Nov 19, 2018
Turn Your Two-Wheel-Drive Car into Four-Wheel-Drive by Adding Hubless Orbis Electric Wheels
The Orbis Ring-Drive wheel points to a future of DIY hybrids
A company called Orbis has developed a hubless aluminum wheel fitted with an electric motorcycle motor inside. Incredibly, this weighs--and, they improbably claim, costs--about the same as a standard, conventional wheel. Yet it adds 50 horsepower per new wheel and turns your 2WD car into 4WD. As a proof-of-concept, they
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By Emily Engle - Nov 02, 2018
HAY Is Coming to North America, Both Online and Brick And Mortar
Also, that HAY x Sonos collaboration we've had our eyes on is finally launching.
The day has finally come: Americans who seek a wider variety of HAY products for our homes no longer have to flock to the HAY Kitchen Market in the basement of SoHo's MoMA Design Store (although no complaints about that selection either...). The point is, now a majority of HAY's
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By Rain Noe - Oct 31, 2018
Poll Ranks Top 12 Most Irritating Things About Technology
Selfies, unaware pedestrians, meal photos, what's #1?
Part of the reason I left New York City is because it's not New York City anymore; it's been invaded by a bunch of trend-following people walking around and staring into their phones, joggers stopping in the middle of the street to Instagram sweatie selfies, people yapping into Bluetooth earpieces
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