Carnegie Mellon University researchers are using robotics and AI to help cities detect underground infrastructure problems before they become threats to public safety and the environment.

• October 16, 2025 *

By: Giordana Verrengia Email

Media Inquiries

**

Name

Cassia Crogan **

Title

University Communications & Marketing

Carnegie Mellon University researchers are transforming how cities can detect and prevent underground infrastructure failures by using robotics and AI to create high-resolution digital maps of buried pipes. The technology not only helps locate critical plumbing more precisely but also can identify corrosion, leaks and other damage that threatens public safety and the environment earlier.

CMU Professor Howie Choset(opens in new window) explained that a lot of people don’t know about the location of underground pipes, but advances in AI tools are making it easier to map and understand them. These advances will help find and discover damage like corrosion and natural gas leaks, issues that can be catastrophic to human safety and detrimental to the climate when emissions seep into the atmosphere.

“We want to create a 3D, Google Earth-like rendering that lets us see where all the pipes are,” said Choset, a professor of computer science at CMU. “Our robots can create high resolution digital copies, called ‘digital twins,’ of underground pipes that uncover problems that crawler robots alone couldn’t — in fact, our pipe data is so great, we can geolocate the pipes that we’re mapping in the moment, as we’re mapping them.”

Through their CMU spinoff company, Pipe Force AI(opens in new window), Choset and his graduate student team are conducting pilot studies, attending pipe inspections and engaging with potential customers across the U.S. They want to work with inspection companies and construction firms — stakeholders who rely on accurate knowledge of pipe locations and conditions to keep workers safe and avoid costly damage before projects begin.

Choset’s team started by collecting data from storm drainpipes. Many of these systems are quickly exceeding their capacity as weather events become more extreme and cause greater damage. This work is the first step in building partnerships with municipalities to assess their underground infrastructure.

For graduate students whose work mostly happens in the lab, customer discovery and field studies are important exercises for meeting in the middle to understand how technical prowess must complement community needs to create an effective hardware or software solution.

“Whenever you see something being sold to a customer, it seems like it’s common sense,” said Choset. “But connecting those two dots from what you have to what they want is really hard.”

Choset is also a faculty affiliate of CMU’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation(opens in new window), which provided support for these efforts through its entrepreneurship award.

— Related Content —