Riccardo Marchetto
Water leakage is a worldwide problem due to the old age of pipeline networks. Meanwhile, subsoil investigations are done with acoustic technology that requires contact with pipelines, which is time-consuming. A two-person team can only check five kilometres per day and detect one or two leaks in networks spanning thousands of kilometres. The proposed solution is based on a physical process in which neutrons are adsorbed only by hydrogen particles, meaning that lower neutron proportions will indicate water leakage. The device comprises a plastic neutron detector based on scintillator technology. The data is analysed using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms and combined with the Galileo system to obtain the precise locations of leaks. When the device approaches a leak, the neutron count decreases compared to the results found nearby. This data is analysed by the AI and ML algorithms and the locations are identified using Galileo data, even when the device is moving at a high speed. The number of detected leaks thus increases significantly with the help of the Galileo constellation.
Contact
