As communities in southwest Detroit continue cleanup efforts following a recent water main break, a local tech startup is developing solutions to prevent future incidents. Motmot, located in the Newlab building on the Michigan Central Station campus, comprises a team of engineers focused on developing an innovative solution for inspecting water lines.
For the past few years, the team has been developing the Motbot, an autonomous underwater robot equipped with AI. The device is designed to inspect water main pipes, functioning as a proactive inspection tool for municipalities.
“So really, this is an inspection tool. We call it an autonomous underwater robot. What we do is we put it directly in a water main pipe and inspect. It has a camera, so it’s able to look at the inside of a pipe. It has acoustics, so it’s able to listen for any leaks,” explained Elliot Smith, CEO and co-founder of Motmot.
Smith is hopeful that technology, like the Motbot, will help cities experience fewer water main breaks.
Smith’s background as a municipal engineering consultant gave him direct insight into the challenges facing cities. “In my past life, I was a municipal engineering consultant. So, I helped represent a lot of cities and counties as their direct engineer. What I noticed is we were planning for all these really big, multimillion-dollar projects with a lot of guesswork,” Smith said. That experience spurred the development of the Motbot, which has been in progress since 2022.
The Motbot technology is currently undergoing testing in the labs at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Motmot has also collaborated with MSU’s water works department, which decommissioned 1,000 feet of water main pipe for the device’s testing.
At this stage of development, the robot navigates using the flow of water and propellers. The Motmot team is now working on a second prototype to allow the device to make turns, enhancing its inspection capabilities.
“This is just a 3D printout and this will be the first time you can start taking a turn in the system,” Smith said, holding the prototype. “So, you totally change the game where you can go from maybe a 5-mile straight inspection to, if you can make that turn, now you’re doing hundreds of miles for an inspection.”
Smith shows what the next prototype of the Motbot will look like.
Smith emphasizes the goal of providing cities with affordable access to monitoring methods before critical and expensive breaks happen. “What our true mission is, it’s about public education. It’s about people realizing there’s a whole world underneath our feet that we truly just take for granted,” Smith said. “Our systems are old. Our systems are really old. So, we need to make sure we’re taking care of our most critical assets.”
Motmot is scheduled to officially launch their pilot program in East Lansing in June. The company is optimistic about welcoming other cities to test their technology, given the interest they’ve already received. More information about the technology is available on the Motmot website.
