Manchester: how a robot fixed a gas main under school playground as children and staff carried on with their lessons

A robot has been deployed to fix a gas pipe under a school playground in Manchester, enabling lessons and play to continue without interruption.

Cadent, which manages the local gas distribution network, called in Cast Iron Sealing Bot (CISBOT) for the work at St Philip’s CE Primary School.

Cadent was called to the school in Hulme after staff had reported a smell of gas.

Two gas mains run under part of the playground, the car park and the playing field.

This location obviously presents major challenges. It might have otherwise required multiple excavations and much disruption to school life.

CISBOT, developed and operated by ULC Technologies, was launched into the metallic gas main from a single small pit excavated on the school grounds.

In-built cameras enabled the highly-trained human operator – working from a cabin above ground – to move the tethered robot along 300 metres of underground pipe.

With gas remaining on at all times, it checked and sealed around 83 joints.

This means everything was completed safely without any need to impact school life: lessons carried on and the children enjoyed playtime throughout.

Cadent's Marc Chester-Lees said: "Using CISBOT on this job meant that, without interrupting school life, we could check and seal the joints on around 300 metres of pipes which run under the playground and playing field of the school7".

“We’ve used robotic technology like this now on a lot of jobs across our North West network – under very busy roads, for example, as well as a golf course”.

“This a first time for a school playground though.”

“We’ve used robotic technology like this now on a lot of jobs across our North West network – under very busy roads, for example, as well as a golf course”.

“This a first time for a school playground though.”

With some inquisitive children spotting the eco-cabins and work going on in their school grounds, members of Cadent and ULC’s teams went into the school following the project to educate Years 4 to 6 on the robot that was beneath their feet and carbon monoxide safety.

During the day, the children got a chance to drive ULC’s large VGC, a robotic inspection crawler which is inserted into live gas mains to inspect and identify features inside the pipeline.

Alex Pender, Senior Communications Specialist at ULC, said: “Thank you to St Philips Primary School for allowing us to come in and educate the children on gas safety awareness and how our CISBOT partnership with Cadent is helping to minimise disruption in local communities.

“We enjoyed the questions, innovative thinking from the pupils, and drawings of their own robots. Hopefully, we will see some of these children lead the way with engineering in the future at ULC or Cadent.”

Marc Chester-Lees added: "The children were very inquisitive and asked a lot of excellent questions throughout the day. It was great to be able to provide this day’s activities as one way for us to say thank you to the school for being so accommodating to the work we had to do there.”

MORE: Manchester Evening News reports on deployment of CISBOT under Manchester city centre streets