Mission: Inspectable – this time, it’s automated!
How might we use robotics, AI and digital data capture to make inspection and quality assurance across water and wastewater assets safer, smarter and more efficient?
The water industry faces increasing pressure to improve safety, quality, efficiency and asset performance across both construction and operational environments. Many inspections and quality assurance activities still rely heavily on manual processes, requiring people to enter hazardous, difficult or unpleasant environments such as confined spaces, live operational sites and remote assets. At the same time, growing expectations around compliance, asset resilience and data-driven decision-making demand more consistent, reliable and accessible information.
The industry also faces ongoing challenges around reactive maintenance, inconsistent inspection data, delayed reporting and limited real-time visibility of asset condition and construction quality. This Sprint will explore how robotics, AI and digital data capture technologies can reduce risk to people, improve the quality and speed of inspections, support proactive asset management and create smarter workflows that enable faster, data-led operational and delivery decisions across the full asset lifecycle.
Importantly, the Sprint will also consider the ethical and cultural implications of adopting AI and robotics, ensuring technology enhances human decision making, supports workforce evolution and delivers genuine quality improvements rather than simply introducing technology for technology’s sake.
This Sprint will explore how emerging and existing technologies can be practically applied across water and wastewater infrastructure, from construction through to in-service operation, inspection and maintenance.
The focus will not be on a single robot, platform or product, but on the wider end-to-end workflow:
- Capturing data safely and efficiently using robotics and digital technologies.
- Processing and interpreting information using AI, automation and digital tools.
- Delivering real-time insight and feedback to operational and construction teams.
- Turning inspection and quality data into actionable intelligence.
- Improving decision making across delivery, operations and maintenance teams.
- Supporting proactive rather than reactive asset management approaches.
Participants will examine challenges and opportunities across:
- Construction quality assurance, inspection duties and verification.
- Final inspections and commissioning.
- Operational asset inspections and condition assessments.
- Asset health monitoring and predictive maintenance.
- High-risk, confined or difficult-to-access environments.
- Real-time reporting, digital workflows and site feedback loops.
- Data integration, governance and quality assurance processes.
The Sprint will also consider:
- Technologies already available and deployable today.
- Existing solutions that could be adapted in the short term.
- Longer-term innovation and R&D opportunities required to unlock future capability.
- Ethical considerations around AI-supported decision making and automation.
- How businesses can successfully adapt culturally to new technologies.
- How people, skills and existing operational processes can evolve alongside robotics and AI adoption.
A key theme throughout the week will be ensuring technology solves real operational and delivery challenges – improving safety, quality, consistency and efficiency - rather than merely deploying the latest innovation.
Participants will collaborate through a mix of workshop activities, structured discussions, challenges and real-life case study exploration throughout the week.
Together, the Sprint team will:
- Identify the highest-value inspection and quality assurance challenges across water and wastewater assets.
- Explore where robotics, AI and digital capture technologies could improve safety, quality and operational efficiency.
- Examine how technology could support more proactive asset inspection and maintenance strategies.
- Map current and future workflows for inspection, assurance and maintenance activities.
- Explore how real-time data capture and feedback could improve construction and operational decision making.
- Discuss ethical considerations, governance and trust in AI-enabled systems.
- Identify barriers, limitations and operational risks associated with deploying new technologies.
- Explore workforce, cultural and behavioural challenges linked to technology adoption.
- Co-create practical concepts and solutions that could be implemented across AMP8 and beyond.
- Prioritise the most impactful opportunities based on operational need, feasibility and value.
- Develop and present a future-focused vision for smarter, safer and more data-led inspection workflows.
The Sprint will encourage collaboration between operational teams, delivery teams, technology providers, digital specialists, behavioural and cultural change leaders and participants from outside the sector to bring diverse perspectives and fresh thinking to the challenge.
The Sprint aims to develop a practical and future-focused framework for how robotics, AI and digital data capture could transform inspection and quality assurance activities across the water sector.
Expected outputs may include:
- A prioritised list of high-value use cases across construction and operational assets.
- Future workflow concepts for robotics-enabled inspection and quality assurance.
- Recommendations for where robotics and automation could provide the greatest value during AMP8.
- Concepts for proactive asset inspection and predictive maintenance approaches.
- Identification of key risks, limitations, ethical considerations and barriers to adoption.
- Recommendations for responsible AI governance, data quality and decision assurance.
- Concepts for improved real-time reporting, site feedback and operational decision-making.
- Opportunities for workforce development, role evolution and cultural change.
- Opportunities for short-term deployment and longer-term R&D collaboration.
Ultimately, the Sprint seeks to identify innovative but practical solutions that improve safety, reduce operational risk, enhance quality assurance and enable smarter, more proactive and data-driven asset management across the industry.
This Sprint is relevant to anyone interested in improving how the water industry delivers, inspects, monitors and maintains infrastructure assets.
We welcome participation from:
- Water and wastewater operational teams.
- Construction and delivery professionals.
- Health, safety and quality specialists.
- Asset management and engineering teams.
- Robotics, AI and technology providers.
- Digital, data and geospatial specialists.
- Behavioural and cultural change specialists.
- Academia and research organisations.
- Innovation and strategy teams.
- Regulators and industry stakeholders.
We also encourage participation from individuals who may not have direct expertise in robotics, AI or the water sector but are interested in innovation, ethics, problem solving and collaborative thinking. Diverse perspectives will be essential to challenge assumptions, explore the human impact of technology adoption and develop solutions that are practical, trusted and valuable across the industry.