{"id":105555,"date":"2024-06-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/18\/sewerai-uses-ai-to-spot-defects-in-sewer-pipes-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T12:00:00","slug":"sewerai-uses-ai-to-spot-defects-in-sewer-pipes-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/18\/sewerai-uses-ai-to-spot-defects-in-sewer-pipes-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"SewerAI uses AI to spot defects in sewer pipes | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Climate change is raising the risk, rate and cost of sewage failures. Floods are becoming more common, leading to backups that frequently overwhelm wastewater treatment systems. Exacerbating the issue, America\u2019s infrastructure is woefully outdated; the EPA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enr.com\/articles\/58653-epa-survey-shows-need-for-wastewater-repairs-and-upgrades-far-exceeds-current-funding-levels#:~:text=More%20than%20%24630%20billion%20is,released%20to%20Congress%20May%2013.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimates<\/a> that nearly $700 billion in investments is needed to simply maintain existing wastewater, stormwater and other clean water pipelines over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matthew Rosenthal and Billy Gilmartin, both of whom hail from the wastewater treatment industry, saw an opportunity to help solve the problem with tech \u2014 in a small way, at least. Five years ago, the pair co-founded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sewerai.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SewerAI<\/a>, which taps AI to automate the types of data capture and defect tagging that make up a sewer inspection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost infrastructure was built post-WW2 and is reaching the end of its useful life, leading to more frequent failures and increased costs,\u201d Rosenthal told TechCrunch. \u201cSewerAI revolutionizes underground infrastructure inspection and management with its AI-driven software-as-a-service platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SewerAI began as Rosenthal\u2019s side project; he\u2019d started taking online courses on AI after co-launching two wastewater analysis and services firms. While experimenting with AI models to predict sewer defects in inspection videos, Rosenthal recruited the help of Gilmartin, who was working at a sewer inspection company at the time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong> SewerAI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, SewerAI \u2014 whose customers span municipalities, utilities and private contractors \u2014 sells cloud-based, AI-powered subscription products designed to streamline field inspections and data management of sewer infrastructure.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those products, Pioneer, allows field inspectors to upload inspection data to the cloud and tag issues \u2014 data that project managers can then use to plan fixes to pipes. Another tool, AutoCode, automatically tags inspections of pipes and manholes, creating 3D models of infrastructure from videos captured on a GoPro or other camera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLegacy incumbents offer on-premise or on-truck software that has seen very little innovation in the last 20 years,\u201d Rosenthal said. \u201cSewerAI\u2019s technology increases top and bottom lines by enabling more inspections per day at a lower cost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SewerAI isn\u2019t alone in the nascent market for AI-assisted pipe inspection. The company\u2019s rivals include Subterra, which maps, analyzes and forecasts problems with pipelines; Clear Object, which offers software that analyzes footage from pipe inspections for damage; and Pallon, which develops algorithms to spot potential problems inside sewers from still images.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"936\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?w=680\" alt=\"SewerAI\" class=\"wp-image-2794557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png 2000w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=150,70 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=300,140 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=768,359 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=680,318 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=1200,562 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/inspection_view-transformed.png?resize=1536,719 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong> SewerAI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What sets SewerAI apart, Rosenthal claims, is the quality of its data \u2014 specifically the quality of its model training data. Rosenthal says that SewerAI has footage of inspections of 135 million feet of pipes from municipalities and independent contractors. While just a fraction of the 6.8 billion feet of sewer pipes in the U.S., it\u2019s a large enough data set to train a competitive defect-detecting AI, Rosenthal says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur products streamline field inspections and data management, enabling clients to proactively manage infrastructure instead of reacting to emergencies,\u201d Rosenthal said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SewerAI\u2019s sales pitch won over investors like Innovius Capital, who along with others poured $15 million into SewerAI\u2019s most recent fundraising round. Bringing SewerAI\u2019s total raised to $25 million, the cash will be put toward go-to-market expansion, AI model training, hiring and expanding SewerAI\u2019s product portfolio beyond inspection tools. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSewerAI is continuing to grow, and we\u2019re seeing an acceleration in demand for our platform as we enable people to do more with existing budgets, which has resulted in us closing our first seven-figure contracts,\u201d Rosenthal said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/06\/18\/sewerai-uses-ai-to-spot-defects-in-sewer-pipes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change is raising the risk, rate and cost of sewage failures. Floods are becoming more common, leading to backups that frequently overwhelm wastewater treatment systems. Exacerbating the issue, America\u2019s infrastructure is woefully outdated; the EPA estimates that nearly $700 billion in investments is needed to simply maintain existing wastewater, stormwater and other clean water [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-105555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}