Yongming Liu

ASU researchers develop advanced robotics and AI system to inspect pipelines and prevent blockages

Pipelines that transport natural gas, crude oil and refined fuels are critical to keeping modern society running productively. But as underground infrastructure ages, it poses serious dangers. These threats are being addressed through work powered by artificial intelligence, or AI, technology, and soft, flexible inspection robots capable of navigating pipes to understand how pipelines fail and other technologies to help anticipate problems before they occur. Contributors include Fulton Schools faculty members Yongming Liu in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Hai Yan in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence and Wenlong Zhang, in the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks, along with Hanna Breetz, an associate professor in ASU’s School of Sustainability.