AI is being used to unblock poo from pipes.
The tech analyses data from 12,000 sensors monitoring how water levels were rising and falling.
It then determines if a sewer was blocked and could be about to overflow.
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It is part of a collaboration between South West Water and the University of Exeter.
The AI processes hours of CCTV footage of sewage infrastructure to look for defects or blockages in waste water pipes, as reported by Need To Know.
Richard Price, of SWW said: “The AI acts like a digital detective.
“It learns what normal looks like for each part of the network and spots when something’s wrong even before a human could notice.
“This means teams can be sent out to the exact location of a suspected blockage, often before customers are even aware of an issue.”
Richard Everson, Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Exeter, added: “It’s fantastic to see new research on modern AI processing coming into practical use for inspecting underground waste water pipes.
“By using these technologies together, there’s great potential to make wastewater networks smarter and more resilient.
“At the moment, AI relies on humans doing the laborious job of looking at the CCTV; something usually done by surveyors, in the cold, in the back of a van or something like that.
“There are lots of tasks like this, that we as people try to do and machines turn out to be very good at them.”
South West Water provides water and sewerage services to Devon and Cornwall, plus small parts of Dorset and Somerset.
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