Tank Cleaning Robot | See it First at ACE17

Deep Trekker™ is set to showcase the new tank cleaning robot, the DT640 Utility Crawler, at AWWA ACE 2017 in Philadelphia - including the award-winning DT340 Pipe Crawler and underwater drones.

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https://youtu.be/6uCmt1Hhoc4

As the Deep Trekker team gets ready to exhibit at the AWWA Annual Conference and Expo (ACE) in Philadelphia (be sure to come and visit us at stand 3136!), our focus turns towards municipalities and contractors.

With an increasing demand for cost effective and reliable alternatives, let’s look at how municipalities are utilizing Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), or underater drone, in their day-to-day inspections.

Underwater Drones and Pipe Crawlers Systems to Inspect & Maintain Infrastructure

Deep Trekker ROVs and Pipe Crawlers are the go-to tool for municipalities and contractors to inspect their water systems. Inspection and maintenance are a requirement of ensuring that our cities water systems run safely and efficiently. From wastewater to stormwater, treatment facilities to drinking water; Deep Trekker’s inspection vehicles are designed to deploy quickly and from any location, keeping operators safe and providing a cost effective alternative to municipalities.

For instance, the DT340 Pipe Crawler has been widely adopted for sewer inspections, without the requirement of a dedicated operation truck. The DT340 Pipe Crawler is simple to deploy, and provides clear imagery of the internal pipe systems, integral information in order to plan future maintenance work, and to proactively identify areas of risk before a disaster occurs.

 

Related story: Recently, a small town of 8,200 residents purchased a DT340 pipe crawler and took control of their storm water inspections

 

Remotely Operated Vehicles Used in Potable Water Tank Inspections

Alternatively, Deep Trekker ROVs have been the industry leaders in water tank and reservoir inspections. Unlike traditional ROVs, the Deep Trekker ROV systems are completely battery operated, allowing the operator to be self-contained, without worrying about reaching power in a truck or from a generator on the ground.

“Deep trekker makes this task much easier no hauling in a generator. I’ve also gone multiple days without charging and inspected multiple tanks.” - Jake Spaulding, Mountain West Commercial Diving

Remotely Operated Vehicles are unique tools for water tank inspections; since they are safe to enter potable drinking water, no draining is required. These submersible robots can easily inspect the interior walls, ladders, ceiling and other areas of interest. Live video is sent back to the handheld controller for recording and documentation. Related Story: Underwater Drone Inspects USA County Reservoir – Providing No Interruption in Service ROVs provide a cost-effective and hassle-free way to regularly inspect potable water systems and reservoirs. Although, there was still one aspect of tank inspections that ROVS have not addressed: sediment removal.

Tank Cleaning - Removing Sediment

Until now, all of the water in a tank would be drained to remove the sediment, or a team of commercial divers would enter the tank with a submersible pump. Due to the safety risks associated with entering a confined space like the water storage tank, a minimum of three commercial divers would need to be on-site to perform each cleaning. Sediment build-up is a natural occurrence of water storage tanks. Periodic cleaning of the tanks is scheduled and very important in ensuring that this sediment does not reach too high of a level or get stirred into the drinking water.

A New Tank Cleaning Robot

We are so excited to be unveiling the new tank cleaning robot, DT640 Utility Crawler at ACE 2017. We’ve listened to our customer feedback, and have designed a tank cleaning robot to complement our tank inspection ROV. The DT640 Utility Crawler can be equipped with a custom vacuum head to remotely remove sediment from water storage tanks.

We’ve taken the proven aspects of our ROV and put it into a wheeled vehicle, submersible to 50 meters (164 ft), while still using on-board batteries and our hand-held controller. The three-wheel, zero turning radius, rubber wheels provide the delicate maneuverability required when working with tank liners. The vehicle is safe to enter potable water, and does not require the tank to be drained or diver intervention to pump out all of the sediment build-up.

Tank Cleaning Attachments

The custom vacuum head attachment allows any standard pump to be connected directly to the DT640 Utility Crawler. Using the handheld controller, the DT640 Utility Crawler will maneuver throughout the bottom of the tank, remotely vacuuming away the sediment. Either the on-board camera or the optional elevated auxiliary camera (for a wider vantage point) sends back live video to the handheld controller for the operator to accurately clean the entire tank with ease.

Want to learn more? Go to the DT640 Utility Crawler Product Page

We couldn’t be more excited about this new addition to our industry leading product line. The DT640 Utility Crawler is the perfect complement to our ROVs to continue reducing time to inspect and clean tanks, as well as increase the safety of divers and our communities.

You won’t want to miss our booth at ACE 2017 in Philadelphia, we’ll be at stand stand 3136 with our ROVs, pipe crawlers and the DT640 utility crawler for you to test drive yourself. Can’t make it to Philadelphia? Contact us today to chat.