For more information, see this project's homepage . Underground steel gas mains often corrode or crack causing the gas to leak.
Gas leaks can produce catastrophic explosions particularly in urban and residential areas.
Gas utilities use a costly and cumbersome approach to gas line repair requiring sensitive leak detectors and sometimes digging multiple holes in the street before locating and repairing the leak. Utility gas leak repair costs exceed several hundred million dollars annually nationwide. GRI and NASA are funding a program to reduce the cost of repairing gas distribution mains using advanced robotics technology. Over a three-year program, researchers expect to develop a robotic repair system, which can travel a thousand feet in either direction from a single excavation to enable multiple repairs of corroded and leaking pipe joints in live gas mains. In the first year's effort, several modules were developed and a facility for testing the system was built.