ABINGTON, Pa. — Two years ago, the Public Works Department of Horsham Township, Pennsylvania, became the unofficial “client” of a group of Penn State students enrolled in the Philadelphia regional engineering degree.
The township needed a cost effective and budget friendly alternative to hiring outside contractors to inspect the interior of stormwater pipes and visually identify flaws, defects and damage that could lead to sinkholes and other issues.
The students successfully delivered Stormbot, a custom video inspection robot they built, in the spring of 2016. Stormbot allows the public works staff to examine images and video captured by the robot to determine the exact location of any problems and to decide the best approach to remedy the damage.
Each year since then, students enrolled in subsequent robotics courses taught by Robert Avanzato, associate professor of engineering at Penn State Abington, refine and improve Stormbot based on requests from Horsham Township. This spring, they upgraded its reliability and waterproofing, and improved the ability for the robot to be driven out of the pipe effectively.
The robot was used for inspections in three locations recently, according to Avanzato.
“Overall, the robot has been performing very well, and the township is very pleased with the results," he said.
"This project is a great opportunity for engineering multidisciplinary design option students in my robotics course to gain real world experience in field testing and operation of a robot,” Avanzato continued. “It is also a great example of student and faculty work having an impact on the local community.”