The Tiny Sewer-Crawling Robot Designed to Solve an Underground Crisis

In January, a collapsed sewer pipe outside Washington, D.C., spilled more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. It is likely the largest sewage spill in U.S. history, but just one of an estimated 75,000 across the country each year, according to the EPA.

As aging sewer networks struggle with growing populations and changing weather patterns, a team of engineers and professors in Europe is developing a robot designed to detect and potentially address problems before disaster strikes.

Watch how the $9 million EU-funded PIPEON project is tackling the dark and perilous world beneath our streets.