‘Self-Repairing’ Cities to be Fixed by Agile Robots

Drones could be among the tools of urban infrastructure that repairs itself.

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What if the infrastructure of cities could repair itself? The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that scientists at the University of Leeds are engineering robots to do just that. Both robots and drones would fill potholes, plug leaky pipes and fix street lights as part of a broader effort to design self-repairing cities, the article says.

The university is leading a £4.2 million (US$6.5 million) push to create an army of small robots that could spot defects and repair them without human intervention. Drones capable of perching on rooftops, ledges and other hard-to-reach places would aid with the effort, the Post reports.

The scientists are using their imaginations to dream up innovative ways of repairing cities. For example, they hope to develop robots that would operate solely within utility pipes to perform diagnostics and repairs. These machines could work swiftly and without the need for disruptions such as digging up roads and blocking lanes with construction vehicles.


Read the Full story here. This article originally appeared at Citiscope, a nonprofit news outlet that covers innovations in cities around the world. More at Citiscope.org.  


 



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