Japan Infrastructure Waymark (JIW) conducted an inspection of 500mm and 600mm sewer pipes within the jurisdiction of the Kure City Waterworks Bureau in Hiroshima Prefecture using a non-powered float boat developed by the company, successfully capturing footage inside the pipes.
Specifically, the boat navigated and filmed the underground pipes between manholes and the bridge-attached pipes managed by Kure City. A worker lowered the boat, equipped with a recovery string, into the upstream manhole and gradually let out the string to capture the interior of the pipe. Another worker waited at the downstream manhole and retrieved the boat after its arrival. Finally, the upstream worker reeled in the string and retrieved it.

Going forward, the company plans to establish a method for confirming the distance from the manhole in the footage and to test a method for capturing footage without requiring workers to enter the manhole.
Previously, drones could not fly over small-diameter pipelines, so inspections were mainly carried out using camera vehicles. This required workers to enter manholes, and posed challenges, such as the inability to inspect sections with strong currents or sections with foreign objects in the water. The use of float boats will help solve these issues.

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI